Hollyhocks ~ Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush

Hollyhocks

Bluebonnets & Indian Paintbrush

Some fun wet on wet paintings of flowers. They turned out really soft and seemed to capture the lushness of the flowers nicely.

Hibiscus Triptych

These 3 views of a close up hibiscus blossom were really fun to paint - top in pink, middle in grays, bottom in yellow.

Port Aransas Fun

Robert at the beach

Hibiscus Blossom

Succulent garden in Port A

We had a really fun camping trip in Port Aransas. Breezy, cool, clear water - lots of fun. Enjoyed some quick sketch painting during my time there.

Anney Rehm's Journaling Workshop

Out door scene

True Value Little Red Wagon

Anney had a wonderful workshop and we explored some new tools for painting, working on a small scale in little journals with fewer and more versatile tools so that it is easy to take your drawing and painting tools with you as you travel or just capture daily life around you. My favorite new tools are scrapbooking ink pens from Micheal's that diffuse when touched with a wet brush or sprayed with a fine mist. And water-soluble graphite pencils in light, medium and dark wash that add interesting grays, shadows, textures to paintings and drawings. 

Parrots

These two paintings with color palettes of only 3 basic colors were fun to do...very different atmosphere to the two paintings.

Hard & Soft Edges...

These 2 little paintings I did with hard then soft edges. Nice contrast in mood and atmosphere in each painting.

Birdhouses - Warm & Cool

These birdhouses are painted on Arches 140# paper in warm & cool colors - changes the character of the paintings. I used salt on the background of the warm palette to establish some interesting texture.

Doors and Windows

These small watercolor paintings are from the one-day workshop that I took in March with Lake Travis artist Rae Andrews. We focused on free form paintings in the top painting and drew in subject in the bottom painting as well as using graphite to establish dark areas before painting. Neither painting is especially successful but I did learn a lot in the workshop and I need all the help I can get in "loosening" up my style - it helped! Rae encouraged us to leave lots of whites in our paintings and use more of a vignette style of design.

SPRING IS BURSTING WITH COLOR!

Waterloo Watercolor Group has a spring member's show from

May 4 - July 6, 2015 

at the Corridor of Art

Lower Level

700 Lavaca

Downtown Austin

My watercolor Bundle of Sunflowers will be shown in this spring show.

Please drop in to see this fantastic showing of watercolors.

Hydrangeas in Bloom

This watercolor of a bowl of hydrangeas was done on Arches paper using a background technique of wet on wet tissue paper with paint to get some interesting texture.

Happy 20th Anniversary!

Friends celebrated their 20th anniversary in Maui last summer. I did this watercolor from a photograph that they shared on their Christmas card this year and gifted the painting to them as a remembrance of their anniversary and special trip. Beautiful colors in the water, sky and mountains. Done on Arches watercolor block paper.

Large Fish

This watercolor fish on Arches paper is a combination of several techniques. The fish was in a large still life and I decided to just focus on him.  After doing a radial gradated wash in the background, I used stencil to create patterns over the background and on the fish using watercolor pencil shavings on wet paper to color in the stencil areas. I used salt on the wet background to get more pattern as well, then highlighted the fish with the darker edging around him and darkened his eye to get a good focal point.

Magnolia Blossom

This painting was also done on Arches paper with the wet on wet technique of crumpled tissue paper then painted over. After drying the darker green paint was very distinct on the paper and the lighter colors were very subtle.

Teapots

This painting of teapots is also on Arches paper, using a tissue paper texture techinique for the background. The watercolor paper was dry then the dry crumpled tissue went on top of the dry paper with very wet paint painted on top. Then the painting is completely dried before removing tissue. When the watercolor paper is dry, the texture is much more apparent as you see on this painting compared to the more subtle background on the poppy paintings.

Poppies

These two poppy paintings were started with crumpled tissue paper placed on wet Arches watercolor paper. Then background and foreground colors were very wetly painted onto the tissue paper. After drying completely, there was a wonderful batik - like  texture & color on the paper. Then  I painted the poppies and foliage in and did some very light shadowing.

Blooming

Blooming is a watercolor on Arches paper. I did this study of white flowers trying to capture the many colors that are also reflected  in the white of a flower.

 It turned out with nice value contrast.
Blooming now has a new home with my artist sister in law!

London Leaves

London Leaves is a watercolor on Arches block paper.

Robert and I visited the UK last fall and I collected several fallen leaves in London and pressed them in the book I was reading. I painted directly  on the leaves and pressed them onto the watercolor paper then splattered and highlighted color, used some ink to highlight leaf veins.

Princess Belle

This is a pastel painting of my sister's much beloved dog, Belle, who recently passed. Belle was a loving and beautiful rescue dog who brought many long years of happiness. The painting was inspired by a photograph taken this past Christmas; in the photo, Belle has a lovely princess sparkly crown on and she is in front of the family Christmas tree which is pictured abstractly in the background of the painting. I am gifting this picture to my sister for her birthday later this month.

The Hall featuring Art by Vicki Goodrich

Come to 

The Hall 

- an art event -

at Redeemer Presbyterian Church 

2111 Alexander Avenue between MLK Blvd and Manor Road

this Friday night, February 6,

6:30 - 9:30pm

Enjoy dinner at the Food Truck, 

music by Tim & Myles Thompson, 

home crafted beer by the Wasted Saturday Brewers, 

and my art - watercolors and pastels

See redeemerpres.org for additional info.