Red Gladiolus

Yesterday, despite a thick snow on the ground, I saw a bit of sunshine. Taking this opportunity of a good light, I held my pencil to make a sketch of a gladiolus from a birthday card I got from a relative. Then in a rush I played with it with watercolor. See what happened, the flower is recognizable but it can be seen that it is not seriously done. This is what I do when I have an immediate urge to use my paintbrushes.

Since today is the last day of 2010, this work is naturally my last for this year. MAY EVERYONE HAVE A FRUITFUL & MORE SUCCESSFUL 2011.

Single pink rose

Our weather today is dark and snowy with some little rain. I am already adapted to this European weather condition during winter season. As I look outside from my window, it seems that the road is slippery, a bit dangerous for driving. Now, to brighten a little bit the day, I posted the following pink rose. It was a painting project which I did a week ago. Rose is one of my favorite flowers, so expect in this blog more postings on roses.
The painting is much brighter in the original, perhaps the way I photographed made the difference. It is done in watercolor and the size is 30 x 40 cm.

Lovely rose

I do small painting exercise regularly to improve my painting technique. The pink rose below is what I've done this week, in watercolor. For inspiration I used someone's photograph which I still have to check the real owner.

Van Gogh's Chapel

My interest in painting began when I learned about Vincent Van Gogh, the famous Dutch painter who did not see the fruit of his success. I am really a big fan of him. It is not only his paintings that fascinate me but also his life story. For me, his life is an example of an intelligent man whose mind is difficult to read. Below is my work that I patterned from Van  Gogh's painting  of a chapel in Nuenen in the Netherlands. (I noticed a strand of hair from the painting, it could be mine which fell when I did this photo).

Taal Lake Sunrise

This is an early morning scene from Taal lake in Batangas province in the Philippines. What is really amazing is that a volcano is standing within the lake, which is considered as the smallest active volcano perhaps in the world. Many tourists visited the place to enjoy the sceneries there and have some swim in the lake.

Farm road

This is a small country road outside the gate of my relative's house in the middle of their farm in France. I have painted this probably 4 months ago to learn how to paint trees. Not happy with the outcome, I thought not to post this painting here. But someone wanted to see it, so who am I not to grant her request. I intend to make a new version of this later.

Carnations

This is a sort of an exercise. I was inspired by a painting posted by Lin in her blog http:/www.viewfromtheoak.blogspot.com. I love the simplicity and looseness of her painting.

Red Poppies

I played with this while trying to learn more on wet and wet technique. So this is one of the products of my light and learning moments. This is a small watercolor painting.

Color of Autumn

I made this as an exercise. I saw this scene near my house while I was walking one Sunday. I was captivated by the color of the red young tree that I had to go back to the area to take a photo of the scene. This is a loose style of painting which I'm just learning.

Sign of Autum

These are the colors of the trees near my house showing that autum season is with us. It is lovely to see the colors change from green to yellow green and then from yellow to brown. In some trees, the leaves change from reddish brown to dark brown until all of them fall on the ground.

Holland's Windmill

The photograph of Stompetoren's windmill in Holland served as an inspiration for this work. The photograph appeared in '100%NL' magazine, a local publication.
> size is 30 x 40 cm; medium: watercolor

Pinkish Magnolia



This is another version of magnolia flower I painted before which I called 'Amazing Magnolia.'
This is in watercolor, size 18 x 24 cm (7 x 9.5 inches).

Holland's prunes

A practice study

Pink roses with a vase

I did not make any sketch for this painting before I started working on it. I just thought what to do while painting, no planning over what will come out later. This is a study painting of sort. The size is 5.5x6.5 inches (about 14x16 cm)

Yellow orange rose

This is based from the picture of a rose I 've taken somewhere in Germany. I 'll check my daily notes when I made that trip to that country.
This is a small study painting, the size is approximately 5 1/2 x 7 inches.

Philippine Mangoes

These are Philippines' Carabao mangoes. This kind of mango is unique in the Philippines, at least that is what I know. Is there anyone dares to say not really? Anyway, this sort has plenty of flesh and smaller seed as compared with other varieties. I really love the taste of it. Early this year I had brought some pieces of this mango to Holland from the Philippines. I took some photos of the fruits and used for this exercise.

This image is 18 x 24 cm or roughly 7 x 9.5 inches in size.

Lidice Rose

I called this Lidice rose because I based it from a reference photo of a rose which I took from Lidice, a place in the Czech Republic where a memorial dedicated for the Nazi massacre victims is located. The village is about 20 kilometers away from Prague. The victims are said to be more than 300 which include children, men and women. I was in the area last 8 June 2009. The memorial place has a beautiful garden  full of different kinds of roses.

This painting is 18 x 24 cm or approximately 7 x 9.5 inches.

Amazing Magnolia

At first I thought of throwing this painting because when I was doing its background it did not turn out what I wanted it to be. Fortunately, I decided to continue working on it and see what will happen. The outcome is not really that bad. The flower turned out beautiful though I am not really satisfied with its background. The painting is not perfect but this is how every artist learns, knowing what is wrong from his/her work.

I used a reference photo in doing this painting. When spring began this year I wanted to go around and look for magnolia flowers so that I could take pictures of them. Last Sunday, we went to the Arboretum Port-Bulten in De Lutte, and there we saw magnolia trees with flowers. I took some pictures and then we walked around to enjoy the sunny weather. Thereafter we decided to drive to Garden Center G. uit het Broek in De Lutte/Oldenzaal which is opened that day. While driving along the way to the garden center, I was checking where I saw the magnolia tree when we were on our way to the Arboretum. Approaching the garden center, I saw again the towering tree full of flowers in front of a beautiful house. We parked at the center's parking area and went inside to buy some plants for our terrace. We bought 2 pots of France Geraniums and a pot of pink hyacinth. Before leaving the garden center, we walked back to the magnolia tree nearby and took some pictures of its beautiful and pinkish flowers that were hanging on the lower branches. I used two of these pictures as basis for this painting.

The size of the image is 24 x 30 cm.

Claude Monet's house

For this painting, I used a reference photo I took during a visit to the house and garden of the famous impressionist painter Claude Monet in Giverny, France. We were there in October last year purposely to see the place. We were informed then that the best period of the year to visit the place is during summer when the flowers are in their growing and blooming stage. One disadvantage however, during summer is that the place is very busy because of the many tourists and students visiting the place. We were there in the fall, so most of the flowers were either in their wilting stage or some were totally gone. Anyhow we promise ourselves then that we will visit the place again during the flowering season.

The size of this painting is 30x40cm, and in watercolor.

Venice's Canal and a Gondola

Last October 2007, we were on a holiday in Venice, Italy. After leaving the city I brought with me a lot of pictures I took while touring and walking around the area. I used one of these pictures as basis for this painting. I spent working on it from 25-27 March of this year (2010). When I took the picture I was not thinking of painting it because at that time I was not yet into painting. I started with painting middle of last year.

The size of this painting is 30x40 cm and it is in watercolor.

Painting exhibition

I made the above slideshow from the photos I took during our painting club's exhibition on 14 March 2010 at Postduivencentrum Poolmansweg 128 t/o 113 Enschede. Most of the the members of the club participated. For me the exhibition was my first time since I have just joined the club. I have exhibited around 12 paintings. I really enjoyed the occasion and already looking forward to participate again next year.

Yellow and violet pansies

This is a small painting, about 14x17cm (5.5x6.7inches). I did it as an exercise for the wet and wet watercolor technique. I have just began painting using watercolors so as I have some available time I want to spend it playing with my palette.

A tree rose in Chenonceau castle's garden

This painting is based on a photo I took in 2006 from the garden of Chenonceau castle's garden in Chenonceaux, France.

This blog

I have just created this blog to write about my journeys with watercolors. Playing with watercolors gives me so much pleasure, excitement and disappointment as well. So in this blog one can expect the different emotions I experienced with watercolor painting.