Thanks to the inspirational, yet casual, no-pressure #12MonthsOfPaint project on Instagram, I've been getting out my old art supplies, exploring new techniques, and USING that precious and expensive watercolor paper! In January, marvelously creative ladies Courtney Cerruti, Meighan O'Toole, Jennifer Orkin Lewis (August Wren) and Erika Lee Sears joined up to promote this online project that encourages experimentation and sharing. Anyone can join in, and the themes change monthly. For January, the theme was blue and this; month the theme has been portraits.
For the blue theme I painted a few studies of my favorite blue bowls which I probably could have kept going on and on with after my renewed interest in gouache. But soon after I pulled out my Dr. Ph. Martin's concentrated water colors (we called them dyes— left over from art school!) and I have really been enjoying making these flourished florals. For me, it's interesting to see how one of my most popular sketches from Instagram translates to color and paint. I didn't think overthink how to interpret in color, the brush lines just decided to be that way. If you're interested, I've added more of these to a florals slideshow here.
Today I'm feeling quite thankful for the #12monthsofpaint project and all the online support— it's been fun to loosen up and creating these is very relaxing for me. I highly encourage your participation in #12MonthsOfPaint, you never know what might come of it.
