Finding a Spot

I love the beach! As a matter of fact, all of my family loves the beach and any kind of water-related activity. Our favorite vacation is renting a big beach house in the Outer Banks and spending quality time with our family. We love being there together... swimming or sunning, watching movies, doing puzzles, each evening cooking something delicious and eating in. I am blessed to have a wonderful family that enjoys being together. This watercolor painting reminds me of when the kids were little. We would drag our stuff over the dunes and onto the beach looking for a spot to spread out our blanket. This one was a lot of fun and since it's summer, I think I'll do more beach paintings. This was done on 300 lb. cold press Arches paper. The only thing is, I think I mistakenly ordered rough paper and I don't enjoy all the texture. Close up, it looks like my beach-goers have goose bumps!

Our Two Special Guys

You may remember our two nephews from a previous post. I had done a painting of them on the beach. I decided to tackle a portrait of the boys. Again, I was able to use a reference photo taken by my brother-in-law who is a photographer http://www.ocphoto.net/ . This one was quite a bit of work since it's basically two portraits in one! I'm pretty happy with this painting and will be hanging this one in my own home.

First Kiss

This was painted using a reference photo by ArtCrazy from the WetCanvas site. I loved the story told by the photo of a new mother kissing her newborn infant. I hope you like my watercolor rendition.

Watercolor Portrait

My son was recently here for a visit and my brother-in-law, who is a professional photographer, http://www.ocphoto.net/ snapped an excellent photo of him. He was kind enough to let me use it as a reference for this painting. Many of my paintings are renditions of Jim's wonderful photography.

On Her Wedding Day

About six months after I began to paint, I decided to do a portrait of my daughter on her wedding day. I knew it was a pretty lofty goal but I had this great reference photo just begging to be rendered into a watercolor painting. The photo is of my beautiful daughter just before the ceremony. The photographer http://www.ocphoto.net/ who is her uncle, did a wonderful job of catching her joy on that special day.

Floral Painting is Fun

I enjoyed doing the pink lisianthus floral and wanted to paint another floral. Although I'm not sure what kind of flower this is, I believe it comes from Taiwan.

Pink Lisianthus

I am a member of an online watercolor group that has been extremely helpful to my growth as a watercolorist. The group consists of painters from beginner to professional level and is one of the most generous and friendly forums I have ever been involved in. One of the other members began posting large florals and peaked my own interest in doing them. This is the first result of my foray into watercolor florals.

LaJolla Street Vendor

This is another painting I did from my trip to LaJolla Beach. My son lived in San Diego for several years and my husband and I enjoyed several trips to the area while he was a resident. Among my favorite haunts was LaJolla Beach and I took several photos on my trips there. This was a picture of a young woman selling t-shirts near the beach. It was a sunny day (as usual) and she was just sitting there engrossed in her book with her colorful array of goods spread on the table before her. Again this is one of my first paintings and there is much room for improvement. This is watercolor with ink on 140 lb. cold press paper.

Boys on the Beach

My husband and I have been married for almost 35 years. We live in an area near most of our family and we are indeed a very close knit clan! This painting is of our precious nephews on the beach. Although they are our nephews, we think of ourselves as grandparents to them. They are such an incredible bonus in our lives. I gave this painting to their parents for Christmas.

Daffoney

Her name was Daffoney (I know...very funny way to spell it!) and she was the beloved kitten of my college-age daughter. She was a darling little cat and was totally devoted to my daughter. She lived with her and a roommate in a small house near the university. Sadly she died of FIP at a very young age. My daughter was heartbroken and was still grieving over a year later when I took up watercolor painting. I gave her this small painting for Christmas this year.