Atmospheric Watercolors

I am in love with  a new art instruction book that I bought for myself .  Jean Haines' Atmospheric Watercolors is a delight to view and read, and had me reaching for my brushes and paints to try some of her techniques.

She encourages beautiful, loose washes of color for starting paintings.  She paints loosely, leaving much detail to the viewer's imagination.  In the book she shares tips and practice exercises.
Here is what I have done so far.

elephant work-in-progress

Another elephant work-in-progress

Sunlit daffodils-I think this one is done!

Venetian door-I'm going to repeat this exercise to try to improve it.

Colorful wash-might become a seated figure or an angel

Painting in this loose, juicy style is so much fun!  There is no sketching ahead of time, just applying paint to paper and utilizing the unique characteristics of watercolor paint, like the way it flows, forms blossoms, and blends.  

Jean Haines has several other books available, which are being added to my wish list!

Bible Art Journal page

Not feeling very productive...I have had a sinus headache for about a month.  Today I started my second round of antibiotics, and the doctor also suggested Claritin to see if allergies were part of the problem.  I took one of the "non-drowsy" formula and felt drowsy all afternoon!  I may be going to see the ear, nose, and throat doctor soon.

Meantime, here is one more page that was fun to do and did not require much concentration.

The Bible pages are thin, so I prepped both front and back of the page with clear gesso.  The background is watercolor.  I find that it just splashes around on the coating of the clear gesso, but I like the haphazard mixing of colors.  The birds and branches are drawn with an Inktense pencil in Deep Indigo, and the text is Winsor and Newton watercolor marker.

Finishing Up a Visual Journal

I have been trying to put the finishing touches on a 9" x 12" visual journal that I started last year.  It is a Strathmore Visual Journal for Mixed Media. 

I used some of the printed/painted papers from the Traci Bautista Strathmore Artist's Workshop to make the front and back covers and inside covers.

Front Cover

Inside Cover and Title Page

This spread had remained half done until today when I added a lot more collage elements to make a "Spring Fever" spread.  There are more of my printed/painted/stamped papers at top. Hopefully the photo will enlarge if you click on it.

This one features a print of one of my watercolor figure paintings on the lower left and a silly painting doodle on the right.

This one is a hot mess.  Had too much stuff going on in the background, so I added some white elements (dogs and clock) and large text on vellum.  Still not crazy about it, but it looks better in real life!

I've been adding finishing touches to a few other pages.  Forgot to take pictures of the back cover and inside pages.  Next time!

Grandchildren, Journal Pages, Easter...Fun!

It has been a busy couple of weeks for this sewing/painting grandma!  I had our two oldest grandchildren here in Raleigh for a few days last week during their spring break.  Since I also babysit for the littlest one on Mondays and Tuesdays, it was a fun time for me and the little cousins.  You might understand why I have not had much time for blogging!

We did lots of painting and sidewalk chalk art.

I took them to the sculpture trail at the North Carolina Museum of Art.  It was a beautiful day to be outside.  Little Charlie saw this giant sculpture and must have thought it was a big patchwork quilt. She went running up to it...

but when she touched it, it did not feel like a quilt at all!

At the end of the walk there was a sidewalk full of pulsing fountains to cool us off!

We have lived in a rented house in Raleigh for close to two years, but never tried fishing in the pond in front of the house until recently.  My husband got two fishing rods for his birthday in March, and we discovered that we have a perfect fishing retreat right at home!  Lily caught a fish right away.  Most are bream, but I caught a little bass.

Now everyone wants to go fishing all the time!

Lily wanted to do some sewing while they were at my house, so we started a patchwork project.  I had a lovely floral block made for me by my friend Tama.  Lily loved it, so it will be featured on her tote back when it is finished.  She picked out all the coordinating fabrics and colors.

I had to take the big kids back to their daddy on Wednesday, but on Thursday we went to our cabin in the North Carolina mountains for Easter weekend.  Dave, Emily, and little Charlie came too.  It was a wonderful family weekend.

We have a family compound up there.  My sister and her brother-in-law also had all their grandchildren there!  We had a giant Easter egg hunt in Katy's back yard.

Here are Lacy and Holly checking out the treasures they found.

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Then there were sack races across the yard.  I think there were lots of good memories made that day.

 Okay, so I have not had much time for sewing or painting, but I am still trying to complete the 21-Day Art Journaling Challenge that I joined on Facebook.  Here are some pages I have made according to the daily prompts.

Paint Over a Photo

Kitchen Kapers

Hearts and Wings

Map It!

Home is Where the Heart Is

I have also been doing lots of printmaking while watching the weekly video lessons from Traci Bautista on the Strathmore website.  The lessons are free.  It is a messy process.  I will share some of my printmaking attempts next time.  I'm not sure it is my thing...but it's lots of fun!

More Journal Pages

It has been a crazy wild weather ride here in Raleigh over the past few weeks.  Ice storm, snow storm,    more snow, then seventy degrees, then freezing rain...I am ready for it all to be over and for spring to arrive.

During one of the snow events, my granddaughter and her best friend Annabelle/Tinkerbelle played in the snow and inspired this journal page for the 21 Day Art Journaling Challenge theme of Faces.

I did a watercolor wash for the background, painted my granddaughter Charlie in watercolor from a photo reference, collaged in a photo of her BFF Annabelle, and added dimensional paint and glitter to finish the scene.

I also had time to do Day 3 of the challenge, Zentangle.  I have had some experience with Zentangles, and decided to do something similar to a Suzanne McNeill workshop that I took at Art of the Carolinas.

Basically, I traced a photo I liked from the web, transferred the drawing to the journal page, and then put down a wash of light colors like blue, yellow, turquoise and light red.  Next I painted the zebra stripes with a black watercolor marker.  After that I divided up all the background space with a pencil, and pencilled in some Zentangle doodles.  Once the doodles were in place, I accented them with more watercolor paint in similar colors.  Last of all, I found a quotation that I liked and added it with permanent black marker.

My husband called this one "Calm Before the Storm,"  since we are babysitting for our 2-year-old granddaughter for the rest of the weekend.  Sure do love to paint with her!

More Watercolor Batik Quilting

I have been having fun with my new discovery that you can quilt a watercolor painting on Ginwashi Oriental paper.  I finished quilting one of the sunflower paintings.

Sunny Bouquet, Jeanne McBrayer, Watercolor on Ginwashi paper, design by Kathie George

I also finished quilting and binding the other Sunflowers painting. I am experimenting with adding beads to this one.  In these photos, the beads are just scattered on the quilt top to audition how they look.

 I changed threads many times on both quilts, using a lot of rayon and variegated colors.

I think I like the gold beads, to add even more of the sun-drenched effect to this quilt.

Country Road Watercolor Painting

Here is my project from today's class with Tom Lynch at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh, NC.

A Country Road, copyright Jeanne T. McBrayer

I like the back-lit trees, high color and contrast.  I think I might paint this one again and try to improve the shapes a little.  But this one was a good class with a great teacher.  He was very generous with his time and helped each one of us with his critiques while we were painting.

I bought Tom's book 150 Charts.  It is not sold in stores.  It was pricey, but has lots of helpful techniques, color studies, and how to paint particular items such as trees, water, rays of sunshine/shadow, and waterfall.  I know I will learn a lot from studying this book.  He had a gorgeous mountain creek and waterfall from another class at AOC this weekend.  I wish I had gotten into that class, but it was full.

Creek and Waterfall Painting from Art of Carolinas 2014, Tom Lynch

I have tried two watercolors featuring the waterfall over the dam at our mountain cabin.  I am going to try again one of these days, using some of Tom's hints on contrast and bright color.

Peak Creek Dam at Dogwood Time, copyright Jeanne T. McBrayer

Peak Creek Dam, Creekside View, copyright Jeanne T. McBrayer

Watercolor Backgrounds

There is a new free online workshop at Strathmore Artist Paper website.  This one is titled Watercolor Sketching & Journaling; Instructor: Gay Kraeger.  You have to register for these, but it is easy.  Once you register, you can view the videos, join public discussion forums, and post pictures of your work for critique or comment.

The first lesson dealt with materials and also how to do a wash.  Then very quickly, Gay showed us how to do a landscape using watercolors.

This is my attempt at the landscape.  The wash for my sky was not too successful, but I had never seen anyone do a wash like this instructor, using the side of a small brush.

This one will probably be cut into strips for bookmarks!

There was also a lesson on mixing secondary colors from the three primary colors, and I had fun making my oranges, purples, and greens.

I have done a few watercolor backgrounds and fun things just splashing color on paper.

I think the last one looks like an abstract mountain/river scene and I like the colors.