Red Bell Pepper I

I tried again this morning to paint red bell pepper in watercolors. I've done this to achieve my intention of bringing back my painting routines. And here is the result. I forgot to take a photo before framing this, so I guess some light reflections from the glass can be noticed.

a quick sketch of a red bell pepper

After two months without touching my paintbrushes, I felt like how I will start again painting. It was a strange feeling, I thought. However, because I missed so much my brushes and paints, with my brush and watercolors I sketched this red bell pepper thinking 'Let me see what will come out'. And this is what I got. I hope all of you my blogger friends are doing great.

Holly branch with berries

In watercolors, 18x24 cm

Early last month, when we were walking inside the Arboretum Poort Bulten at De Lutte (Netherlands) I saw a holly plant full of red berries. With christmas season in my mind, I took some pictures of the plant with the intention of using them as reference for a painting which I will use for printing christmas cards. I actually produced two paintings based from the pictures, one is painted in watercolors which is this one above, and the other is in acrylic. I like both versions but I chose the one in acrylic for my christmas cards because of its stronger colors. I will post in this blog later how the card looks like.

These past days I was deeply saddened with what I saw and read from the news about the impact of typhoon Haiyan on the people of the Philippines. Some weather experts considered Haiyan as the strongest typhoon ever landed on earth. I could not imagine how those victims survived the 315 km per hour wind. I just hope and pray that those victims received the necessary help they need so that they will be able to continue hoping for a brighter future. May God bless all of them and also those who are providing help.

a short exercise in watercolors

With my desire to use other medium - other than watercolors, I started painting more using acrylic these past days. However, today I suddenly realized I am missing my favorite watercolors, so I did a little exercise following the loose style of Jean Haines of painting roses. In the first stage of my effort, I got what you see below. I made this image while I was waiting the paint to dry before I continue working on the next stage of the exercise. I am curious how this image will look like in the next stage.
Hope you are all well and have an enjoyable weekend.

iris from Monet's garden

I sketched this Iris flower with pen and watercolors. Here I used my own photograph as reference which is one of the many I took from the garden of Claude Monet in Giverny, France last May.

Have a fine weekend to everyone.

a try on yupo

Last month I received a piece of yupo to try on from Renate. Finally today I got some time to sit down and tried my brush on it. I posted this piece here, although it is a trash, only to show how I managed to use watercolors on yupo for the first time. Since I didn't know how watercolors will react on it, I struggled somehow in finding the way to work with it. I observed that this yupo is not absorbent, the watercolors were just flowing on its surface when they were still wet, and it took longer to dry. As you can deduce from this image, I need more practice to be comfortable with this yupo. But I found it interesting and definitely I will try it again. Thank you again Renate for the yupo and for some information about it. Incidentally, the shop where I buy my art supplies is selling this yupo. 

first grapes

Right now I am busy with my first grapes painting. I borrowed a reference photo from a member of our painting club who also kindly enlarged it for me. The above image is only one of the sections of the painting; and hopefully I can share here later the whole painting. I wish you all a colorful month of April, just like these grapes.

watercolors and candle

Two weeks ago, I saw the original image of this painting from the book of Lisbet Braren-Weinrich which was being used by one member of our painting group. The book is in Dutch and its title is Hoe schilder ik in aquarel - stilleven. I was curious of how the texture in the image was done. So I asked someone from our group and she said I can use candle on the paper. When I read the book, indeed the author suggested that one of the ways to produce the texture is to use a candle. I decided to do an exercise and used the author's image. On rubbing the candle on the paper, I did it either before or after applying some watercolors on the paper. Obviously, I did the rubbing of the candle when the paper was dry. And so the above painting is my version of the author's painting shown in the book.