Watercolor Canvas

"A Burst of Blooms"  12 x 12 inches,  Watercolor on canvas, Available at DPWs

Taking a small break from oils right now, and re-visiting watercolors.  Decided to work on some special canvas designed just for watercolor painting made Fredrix archival stretched watercolor canvas

Started this painting, beginning with the background.  I put down a wash of yellow leaving the center open, and covered the washed area with plastic wrap.  I then set the whole canvas aside for about a half an hour to dry.  When I removed the plastic there was a wonderful texture of yellows and white.

It is a little hard to see all the texture from the photo, but hope you get the idea.  From this point I just started painting my vase of flowers.  One note about working with watercolor on canvas, it is easy to put down paint, but even easier to lift paint.  So when painting be brave and put those colors down, because you can easily remove a mistake, but forget about layering your color, go for bold.

    When it is finished and dry, lightly spray the painting 2 or 3 times with an acrylic varnish, that is what seal the painting so it does not need to be framed under glass.

Be brave and give it a try.

Mary

SchirosArt

Early change

Poppies in a Daisy Vase, Oil on canvas panel, 10 x 8 inches

Starting out an oil painting with an underpainting is a great way to see how well the composition will work.

The first idea was to include a seashell with the flowers.  But after looking at the lay-out, the shell added nothing to the composition. The shell was too centered and actually distracted from the flowers.  At this point the changes were easy to make, to complete the painting.

Just bought I would share the idea, do not be afraid to change your plans, and earlier in a painting is much better than later.

Mary

SchirosArt

Always something to paint

When you need something to paint just look around.  There is a saying "paint what you know".

Oil on canvas, Available at DPWS

Driving around in Michigan this is a common view from just about any road or highway.  The lone barn and Summer green fields.  Painted the barn painting from memory, something I know.

Acrylic on watercolor paper, 14 x 11 inches, Avaialble at DPWs

Some of the first wild-flowers to bloom are daisies, I have worked up many painting from the flowers.  Daisies grow like weeds (maybe they are weeds, pretty ones) all around my yard.  They are always a subject available to paint.

Acrylic on canvas panel, 10 x 8 inches, Red Star,Available at Dailypaintworks

Another flower that grows, again like weeds are the daylily.  Most of mine are yellow, plain boring yellow flowers, but a few that come up look like red stars.  The back side of the flower is yellow, the heart of the flower is yellow and orange with deep red at the edges of of the petals.  These are always a challenge to paint, and each year I take up the challenge.

So to make a long story short, there is always something to paint.

Mary

Schirosart.com