Summer Abstract and Monster #1

Sorry for not posting yesterday.  I was sort of busy.

Saturday morning I woke up to more gray skies and rainy weather.  More than anything I felt I needed some color in my life, so I painted this little abstract.

At least 99% of the time I paint entirely with a round brush, so I wanted to get some practice in with a flat for a change.  I stuck to the primaries to retain vibrant rich colors.

Today I had more fun and decided it was time for something 3 dimensional again.  I've been wanting to crochet some monster dolls for quite some time.  Today was the day for more fun with color.

Monster with Nasturtium

Monster in the Grass

Andy with Monster

At last we have a sunny day!

Drawing Cats in Bed

It was getting late last night, I was tired and just wanted to go to bed but I hadn't done any art for the day yet and I really wanted to keep my chain going.  I remembered something in Carla Sonheim's wonderful book Drawing Lab For Mixed-Media Artists.

Lab 1 is called Draw Cats in Bed.  This sounded just about perfect to me.  I like cats, I like drawing and I like my bed.  So here it is.

Cats in Bed
9x12" sketch with ink

Some of the cats are drawn with my left hand and some with my non-dominant right hand.  Some of the cats are hiding in the negative shapes between other cats.  I thought it was sort of funny, like a puzzle, how that happened, unplanned, quite a bit.

This book has a lot of fun ideas and I look forward to exploring it more and sharing my drawing experiments with you!

Edmonds Waterfront

I took some photos while at the Edmonds Art Festival this past weekend.  I was awestruck by the amazing clouds, but was there to enjoy art made by others rather than to create it myself.  I captured a quick photo of the sky for later and tried my hand at recreating it in watercolor last night.

Here is the photo I used as a reference.

What Color Are Circles?

Last night my household got in quite a heated discussion about  what color circles are, in their abstract form.  I know Kandinsky had something to say about this, but I can't remember what he thought right at the moment.  We each thought circles were a different color, a different primary color, which I found very interesting.  This sparked the start of my next painting, which is an abstract.

It doesn't feel complete to me now, so I think it's still a work in progress, although I'm not really sure what to do with it next.  It sort of reminds me of outer space and planets, although I had no intentions when I started.  Just painting colored circles.

We didn't agree on the color for squares or triangles either...

Thirty Days of Cats

As amazing as it seems (to me at least) I have now completed a cat of some sort every day for the last 30 days!

For this painting I tried something a little different.  First I sketched the face with pencil, like I always do.  But for this one I then used a Sharpie to put in the black areas.  I've never used Sharpie in my watercolors before and didn't even know if it was waterproof.  It is.

I think I understand now why the impressionists didn't believe in using black.  Since it was unrelated to any of the other watercolors in the painting, it was very hard for me to incorporate it and feel like it was a part of the painting.  I actually ended up painting over the black with the other colors.

I think it is much better to mix up a black from the colors used in the painting.  That way the black seems a part of it.  The advantage to using ink was that I didn't have to wait for it to dry like I would if it was watercolor and I was able to get started painting right away.  Also it didn't lift or blur like watercolor that's not completely dry might.

It was an interesting experiment and I think it resulted in an interesting painting of a slightly alien looking cat.

Summer Cat #2

The last couple of days I've tried to make cats that are more realistic looking.  I love the mischievous look on this guy's face.  He looks like a little rascal to me.  Andy said it looked like another summer cat.  I think maybe it's because of the warm, lemony-sunshine yellow I used.  Or maybe I'm just hoping for some sunny summer days and trying to create my own version of sunshine since it's been pretty gloomy weather-wise lately.

An Art Filled Day

Yesterday was a very art-full day for me.

I had been looking forward to the Artists' Garage sale since I heard about it coming up.  I was hoping to pick up some needed art supplies.  I got up early and drove up to Everett.  I got there a little before the Schack Art Center opened, so I hung out with my friend Vincent Van Gogh on the sidewalk out front and checked out the outside vendors.

There were a LOT of people who came to check out what sort of treasures artists have in their garages, so getting through the building was nearly impossible.  I didn't see many supplies there, but I did pick up a big pile of Cloth Paper Scissors back issues.  I love that magazine!  They have so many great ideas for things to try.  I stayed up until after 11 last night just skimming through them and now have many ideas for new projects.

This weekend is also the Edmond's Arts Festival.  The whole family enjoyed spending the afternoon enjoying arts and crafts.

There was so much amazing art there done by professional artists, but one of my favorite things in the whole festival was this little masterpiece, titled "Rainbow Face", done by a 2nd grader!

I don't know the artist, but I find this work of art most fascinating.  It is so colorful and bold.  Kids aren't afraid of anything in art making.  I hope she will continue to make art.

One of Richard and Andy's favorite things of the festival were fountains made with musical instruments (saxophones) and all sorts of other things.  Here's a photo of them checking out one of these fountains.

Afterwards we stopped at Baskin Robbins and had ice cream cones.  

Of course there was also a cat watercolor painting done as well, to continue my chain.  This one is day 28, so after 2 more I can switch to something else.  Hmmm.... what will it be?

Cool Abstract Watercolor Cat Painting- Day 27

Wow!  What can I say about a wild abstract cat with pink eyes?

This is definitely one of my favorites so far.  It was looking good, then I decided to put in a few splashes of new gamboge here and there.  It's amazing how much that improved the painting, at least in my opinion.  Especially in the upper left corner, where it turned the colors that were already there to rainbows.  Ahhh...

Maybe because of the mixed-up colors or the strong lines, but this has a sort of Andy Warhol pop-art kinda feel to it to me.  My son had a friend over who said it definitely belonged in a museum.

A Different Composition

I liked the composition from the last painting, so I decided I would try it again, with the dark background on the left side and the big eyes.  I'm not entirely satisfied with this composition.  I wish I could have fit more of the cat's chin into the painting.  Maybe it's time to start playing with a square format.

You probably can't tell from the picture, but the eyes actually glow.  They were done with a sort of special iridescent paint.  The eyes and the background are my favorite parts of this painting.  I especially like the soft edges and how you can't really tell where the cat's face ends and the background starts.  It's really more interesting to see it in real life, because you can't see all of the details and strange things the paint did on this one from the photo.

This was day 26 of my cat series.

Plein Air Painting in Edmonds and Another Cat

Yesterday was a busy day for me.

I recently signed up for the Plein Aire event through Gallery North.  Yesterday I took the day off from my day job to go to the introductory workshop, led by Kim Caldwell.  It's been many, many years since I painted Plein Aire, so I sort of forgot the basics.  I found the workshop both very informative and inspiring.

The weather was a bit less than cooperative, but it was still lots of fun.  It had stopped raining by the time we went outside.  We went over to the courtyard near Mill Town, around the corner from the Edmonds fountain.  I found the pattern of the wavy lines of brickwork and the row of different sized manhole covers alongside the fountain inspiring, so decided to do a quick sketchy painting of them.  Here is a photo and the sketch.

I found it to be very challenging because I had to paint standing up, which I'm not used to, and I had very limited access to the water I brought.  I had to use one of the planter ledges as a makeshift table, so it was painted from the perspective of the planter in the foreground of the photo.  I really do see what Kim meant about the camera turning all the shadows to black.  There really was a lot of color in there in real life!

So I learned at least two important things from this.  First, painting outside is really fun!  And second, I went out and bought a water brush.  I can hardly wait to try it next time!  Hopefully it will solve the problem of not having accessible water.

Then when I came home, to continue the challenge set forth by my son of 30 cats in 30 days, I did a cat painting.

She reminds me of an amigurumi cat.  Amigurumi is a form of Japanese crocheted doll making.  Usually the eyes are exaggerated, very large, and lower down and towards the sides of the head.  Sometimes they also have proportionally smaller bodies.  Maybe sometime I will try to crochet a doll inspired by this painting, but that's a project for another day.

Monday

For this painting, I had intended to try to paint a gray cat.  I have achieved very nice grays by mixing ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, but I think the key is "mixing".  In this painting I wanted them to mix on the paper.  In some areas they did make beautiful grays.  I didn't seem to be able to stop with this painting and just wanted to paint it a little more and a little more.

Richard says the cat looks sad.  Andy says it looks drunk.  I think this cat's name is "Monday".

Circus Cat

I love my latest painting.  I don't know why, but for some reason it reminds me of a circus.  This cat is definitely one of my favorite paintings so far.  I'm really happy with the soft edges and the intense stare.

 

Psychedelic Cat

This is the most psychedelic cat I've ever painted!  Last night I developed quite a headache, but I hadn't done any painting for the day and wanted to keep my daily painting streak going.  I don't know that the super-bright colors helped my headache any but this looks like one super-freaky guy!  Perhaps the Cheshire Cat's buddy?  He definitely looks like he could live in Wonderland.

Fire Cat

My husband requested I paint a cat in warm colors, like fire.  Here is my latest and greatest painting.

I'm hoping to get lots of things made this weekend and maybe put some of my cat paintings up on Etsy this weekend.  I have some new ideas I'd like to try out involving mixed media.  It's not something I've ever played around with, so I really have no idea what the outcome will be!

Rainbow Abstract Cat Watercolor Painting

Here is a bit of color for your Friday.

Cyan Cat

So last night as I was tucking my 11-year-old son into bed, I asked him what color cat I should paint next. His reply was "a cyan cat with purple eyes".  Cyan?  So I asked him if that was an orange-brown color.  He said no, it's blue-green.  Hmmm.  I had to look it up and apparently I had sienna and cyan mixed up and he was right.  I was so impressed that my son knew a color that I didn't (and a very pretty color at that!) that I had to oblige him. Andy-- here's your cyan cat with purple eyes!

So it seems more blue than green, but I was afraid if I added more yellow to make a greener-blue that it would quickly turn to mud with the purples.  I think I got this color mix just right and retained the brilliance of the watercolors.

Sassy Cat for Day 17

I love this Sassy cat!  I think I really achieved soft-looking fur that is very fluffy.  The colors remind me of a Chagall painting, although I don't think he painted in watercolors.  This cat seems to have real personality to me.  I think he's up to something!

It feels great to have made something every day for the last 17 days.  I hope to keep the chain going!

An Owl or a Pussycat?

I think this cat looks sort of owl-like with his big eyes-- especially if you cover up the ears.  This isn't my favorite painting so far, but I'm very happy with the black I was able to mix myself for the eyes.  I decided to try a different composition and show more of the cat's body this time, instead of just the face.

Crochet Cat #2

It was a weekend of crocheting cats for me!  I managed to get the second one done yesterday.  For some reason it was more challenging than the first one.  I worked with 3 different yarns together.  I had some green cat eyes I wanted to use, like on the first one.  I realized after I had the head and body assembled that I forgot to put in the safety eyes, and it needs to be done from the inside, so it was either take it apart or do something else.  I tried to make another type of eye, but it didn't turn out how I wanted, so I still need to experiment more with features.  I finally opted for buttons.

Crochet Cat #1

I've been having lots of fun with my watercolor paintings of cats, but was starting to miss not crocheting for a while.  Andy determined that I can still earn my sticker for the day as long as I make some sort of a cat every day for the first 30 days.  It doesn't have to necessarily be a painting.

Woo hoo!  Okay... So I decided I would make a cat out of crochet instead of a painting.  I headed off to my two favorite rhyming name stores-- Hobby Lobby and Creation Station for some needed materials.  It's always hard doing something for the first time, but I'm happy with how this cat turned out for being the prototype.  I'm trying to decide if it should have 2 more paws, and if so if they should go behind the ones there, near the tail, or on the torso, like the cat is standing on it's hind legs.  I even made the paws, but couldn't decide.  What do you think?

Today I went to my favorite thrift store with my son and we picked out a pile of sweaters.  I'm going to do an experiment and unravel them to see what sort of yarn I get.  I love playing with fibers!  Hopefully it will be a fun way to get materials for more dolls for the future!

Summer Cat Watercolor Painting

I had so much fun making this cat painting.  I have to say it's one of my favorites.  The colors are absolutely so vibrant.  When I made it I felt like a kid again, just playing with the colors and letting them mix on the paper.  I definitely got in touch with my inner child making this one and it was really FUN!

Summer, Watercolor, 10x7"

My son, Andy, says it reminds him of tangerines, cherries, bananas, pomegranates and blueberries.  So I asked, it's a pretty fruity cat then?  I think this one fits as the 4th in my 4 seasons series.  So now, I present to you-- Summer!

A Cat Watercolor Painting for Spring

So without intending, I realized yesterday that my last 2 cat paintings seemed to be starting a series.  One looked like Autumn and the next looked like Winter.  So naturally it followed when I realized this that the next would have to be Spring.  Maybe if we're lucky Summer will be coming along soon!

Spring, Watercolor, 10x7"