Art Nouveau Lady 1

This was a fun project. I had been wanting to study other artists' works. I have always appreciated the Art Nouveau period and thought I would take a stab at imitating one by Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939). I had also wanted to play around with my gouache paints. Back in November 2020, I drew the pencil sketch in a 5x8 Moleskine sketchbook. I liked it but didn't get back to it until this month. I used gouache, outlined parts of the image in black ink, then glued a fake gold leaf on the surface. It is hardly perfect but it was fun and different. Once it was finished I sprayed it with a coat of Krylon clear spray as recommended. That resulted in a milky coating over the entire image. I understand the coating is needed to protect the "gold" leaf from tarnishing. But before I use it again I need to do some research to find a sealer that does not change the finish.

 

Large Rose

I finished this rose on 19 February but started it in 2020. I am not fond of multi-petal flowers. I personally prefer simple flowers so that means it takes me longer to finish them. This is not because they have more petals to paint but because they generally aren't my favorites, therefore, the lack of interest means they are placed to the side while other projects are worked on.v This painting is on 16x12 cold press 140 Arches watercolor paper.

 

Frontyard Rose

 

We have seven of these rose bushes in our front yard garden. They aren't the most beautiful or most fragrant but they are hardy. We had a similar row of rose bushes at our last house and they lasted for over 20 years until a bad winter snowstorm that killed them off. I am continuing to dig into my paper draw for watercolor paper. This paper is an old scrap piece of Arches Natural White cold press, 300lb. (640 gsm) approximately 8.5 x 11 inches. I cropped it down to a square.

Poppy-Rosebud shoe compostition

 

This little 5x7 card was an experiment based on the concept of using two flowers in a composition that resembles a shoe. It was a fun idea that makes a nice greeting card for a special occasion or just a bit of happy mail for a friend.

Hibiscus

This year we had robins build a nest in our hibiscus tree on the deck. They laid 3 eggs and we watched them grow and got to witness when they left the nest. So I wanted to paint the hibiscus. This painting in on sheet of Arches hot press 140 lb watercolor paper. The cropped size is approximately 8 inches square.

Iris

This watercolor iris is painted on 12"x16" Arches 140 cold press paper.

Chickadee

Chickadees are one of my favorite birds. This little watercolor sketch was done on hot press watercolor paper.