Watercolor and Collage

Forest Moon

Spirit Angel Moon

 Collage work as intrigued me for some time now. The way that you can put elements of designs and subject matter to form pleasing sometimes abstract or surreal images together. Combining watercolor, is something that I have been toying with. For me, I have to have it revolved around a single theme idea and creatively put together elements in an intuitive way. Here are some results that I am pleased with. The Moons with the backgrounds are my watercolors. The rest are images and papers that I have collected over the years that I am now putting to use.

Empress Moon

My Watercolor Workshop in Duravel, France

The watercolor workshop in the Southwest corner of France was a resounding success! This was my first time teaching internationally. I could not be more please. All students enjoyed the workshop. Here are a few photos of the art studio and the surrounding medieval villages that we had the pleasure in visiting and learning about the history.

Bridge in Cahors

Medieval Village St Cirq La Popie

My Students and I out for dinner at Michelin Star Restaurant, Stelsia

The grounds at Domaine du Haut Baran. The workshop generated this painting of Haut Baran.

 

Incognito

This is a bit different than my usual watercolors. Doing some experimenting and testing out a new watercolor paper that I had not used before. I had a photo of several unpainted venetian masks displayed in a window which included not only human looking face masks but also animals. I was drawn to the different expressions and experimented with color and form. Sometimes you have to get out of a comfort zone and try something different.

 

Domaine du Haut Baran

I will be conducting my first International Watercolor Workshop this year! I have been teaching in my local area for some time now and this opportunity came up for me this Fall. I was there many years ago attending a workshop by Judy Morris and love the place! Coming full circle, I am now teaching and will now be conducting a workshop. My workshop is filled for this year already but we'll see what the future holds.

 

First Performance!

 I am proud of this painting that was a commission for a special friend. It is of his granddaughter in a play. I was so attracted to the theatrical theme and enjoyed creating the lighting effects in watercolor. It was a challenge but I am pleased with the result. I took photos of it in stages as I developed the painting. They are posted below. The painting was done on 300lb Kilimanjaro watercolor paper.

Trying Something New!

Breaking away from transparent watercolor, I tried working with Jelly Gouache. I enjoyed it but took a bit of practice to get use to it and its quality and properties. Based on scenes of photos that I took while visiting Monet's Garden, I sketched out these designs and painted using the gouache. 

These turned out to be fun, small works of art that can be framed or used for notecards. If you have tried painting with this fairly new medium, please comment below. Also, I would like feedback on the designs that I created.