WIP: A Rose at Pontigny Abbey's garden

I have not used my paint brushes for almost two weeks now. Fortunately, today I am able to work again on this painting which I started before Christmas. This is from my photograph which I did last fall at the Abbey's garden at Pontigny in France. This is work in progress and in watercolor. I still have to work on the background and on the flower itself. For the background I'm thinking of dark colors, but which colors - I'm still undecided. 

Last holiday season I did not do any painting but I found time to read something about pastels. Why pastels. It is because of the urge to use the box of pastels which had been given to me long time ago but I have never used them. I found it a pity if they will just be kept in the box. So in preparation I have to know and understand how to use the medium. 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Thanks everyone for sharing your painting expertise. 

I learned a lot from your works and comments. Hope that 

everyone will continue to share your paintings.

Christmas is Love

Today is Christmas. Let us celebrate it with profound love

to our family, neighbors, friends and others.

Thank you very much blogger friends for everything. 

I learned a lot from all of you.

Merry Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone. 

I just made this very quickly a while ago to send my holiday
greetings to you all. Thank you bloggers for your attention and comments.
My wish for all of you is continuous good health.

This watercolor sketch was inspired by Barbara Fox's painting.

Quick sketch of our pink hyacinth

Hyacinths are popular these days. Our neighbor family gave us pink and blue hyacinths when we arrived from our long holiday last month. The flowers started to come out last week and now we are enjoying their lovely full bloom flowers and their nice smell. Yesterday while drinking tea, I made a quick sketch of the pink flowers; so here is it.

Sunset

I photographed this sunset early in the evening last summer. I was standing then at the parking area somewhere in Blauwe Hand looking over at Belterwijde lake. These places are between Giethoorn and Belt-Schutsloot in the northern part of the Netherlands. This small painting is in acrylic on cotton canvas. Watercolor is my favorite medium; however, sometime I felt I want to have some variety that is why once in a while I also try to use acrylic or pastel.

Playing with bright colors

Pears are easy to sketch, that's why whenever I do some testing or experimenting, they are my prepared subject. I played with my bright colors (cadmium yellow light, cadmium orange, cadmium red dark, etc.) in my palette this afternoon, and I got this very red orange pears. I like the colors.

Acrylic on unwanted watercolor painting

This is an old piece which I've done in watercolor. Because I didn't like it, it has been kept with "other never mind pieces." However, when I used acrylic to see what will happen with the painting - a sort of an experiment, I got a result that gave me some courage to show it here. I think it is not a bad idea to use acrylic to improve our unwanted watercolor work.

Note: I don't remember the source of the image where I based this work, so if somebody recognize this as their own, kindly notify me. I only used the image for my painting practice, and have no intention to sell this painting.

Rose in pencil sketch

I have not been doing much on my painting lately, even after returning from a long vacation. It is not because I lack motivation to paint, in fact I have a lot of it. I have so many things in my head which I want to do. I think planning and prioritizing are my problems here. I have to set aside some time for the things I want to do. Anyway, this morning while I was taking my breakfast I grabbed a pencil and a drawing paper, then I sketched one of the shining yellow roses in a glass vase that is standing in our living room. So when I finished my breakfast, I also have a flower sketch. 

The Farmhouse

Watercolor, 30x40 cm

I wanted to throw this piece but decided to keep it together with my other 'to be improved' works. I tried to improve it and the result is this image. Perhaps I'll make another version of this.

This is a farmhouse of the cattle business 'Ferme des Plaines' in Saulieu, France. I based this from my own photograph I took in the winter, I think two years ago. During summer time those stems on the concrete of the house are full of green leaves and they turn reddish in the fall. To give you an idea, below is my recent picture of one of the windows of the house.