Category Archives: Watercolor

Fruit Portraits

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I’ve done a number of simple still life paintings of fruit from life – primarily in watercolor. Key goals: paint an accurate – and hopefully interesting – ‘portrait’ of the items and integrate them into their space so they’re not just isolated lumps. The excellent Ed Praybe has been our lead in these endeavors!

  • The star. Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 12 x 16.
  • Unlikely duo – heirloom tomato and peach, snuggling. Watercolor on paper. 6×8.
  • Green apple getting close with another heirloom tomato. Watercolor on paper. 5 x 7,
  • Bright palette – orange and lemon. Watercolor on paper. 4×6.
  • Watermelon and Lime. Watercolor on what turned out to be some kind of board!

More Pandemic Art ~~ a challenging composite of personal memories.

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Over the last six months, I’ve been zoom-studying with artists otherwise out of reach. Here’s the final project of a recent class with Ed Praybe — a composite of several separate images arranged into relatively natural composition. It is based on an image of my mother Annette, taken in her twenties, a photo of my six sisters and me, taken years later as a reference for a group portrait lost in Hurricane Katrina; and several photos of our Biloxi home, also later destroyed by Katrina.

To make it work, I had to adjust the relative scales of the elements and imagine a consistent light source across the whole scene. . .

The final image:

Composite of family home, mother, and sisters. Watercolor on Paper. 14 x 11.

The 4 images that provided the underpinnings of the composition:

Annette O’Keefe, circa 1945.
Family portrait at 725 E. Beach Blvd., circa 1983.
725 E. Beach Blvd, newly restored post Hurricane Camille.
The seven sisters, posing for a painting that was destroyed in a hurricane.

Rhodos ~~ wild and wooly against yellow grasses

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This is another floral, painted a few weeks back. The little petals aren’t as well-suggested as were the petals on the peonies I posted yesterday. And it was extremely difficult to suggest that vibrant magenta. But ‘it is what it is’. . . . I may go back in and soften the strength of that one green leaf between the flowers. Draws the attention too much . . .

Rhododendrons against yellow grasses. Watercolor on paper. 9″ x 12″.
Photo reference from our garden.

Another watercolor ~~ Peonies

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Our peonies were blooming last week so I clipped a few. They were very droopy from the rain so I propped them up with some branchlets from our Japanese maple. Painting flowers with lots of little petals is always daunting! I always like the containers better than the flowers!

Peonies (with Maple Leaf Props). Watercolor on Paper. 9″ x 12″.
The setup which I painted painted from life. The sun was in a different position during the painting session.

Another new watercolor ~~ Los Angeles Palm with golden necklace!

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I love palm trees and have had to practice quite a bit in order to capture a semblance of one. I’ve been procrastinating on this beauty for a number of years — based on a photo I took in LA.

LA Palm, with Golden Necklace. Watercolor on paper. 7” x 5”.

My DC Place ~~ new watercolor

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Here’s a new watercolor based on a photo I took while driving along Massachusetts Avenue in DC a couple of years ago. It captures part of our capital’s essence. Painting it was an imperative.

I used a limited palette of 2 reds, 2 blues, and 2 yellows, plus black.

My DC Place. Watercolor on paper. 7” x 5”.

A Bevy of Spring Tulips in Two Media ~~ Digital (iPad) and Watercolor.

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We’ve got a fabulous clump of red native tulips nestled under a crepe myrtle tree in our front yard. It’s one of the first shows every Spring and it’s hard to beat. I did a digital portrait of them several years ago on the iPad using the Art Rage app and painted them again in watercolor a few days ago. Thought you’d enjoy comparing them!

Red Tulips. Original Digital Painting using Art Rage on an iPad. 4×3 aspect ratio.
Red Tulips. Watercolor on Paper. 14 x 10.

Informal Watercolor Sketch of Granddaughter

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My 3-year old granddaughter and I were painting together during a recent sleepover. She was very engrossed in her art, studiously dragging her wet brush through EVERY block of color before applying the resulting ‘mud’ to her paper. Rather than fret about the growing mess on the palette I decided to paint a quick sketch of her as I looked down on her efforts. Did another quickie the following day from a different angle; different clothes made her look older. . . .

  • Goin’ for It! Watercolor on paper. 8″ x 10″
  • My sweet studious little model . . .
Day 2, Concentration. Watercolor on Paper. 8″ x 10″.