Delicate Ruffles - Watercolor

Back to my beloved watercolor.  This painting started out as a full sheet of watercolor paper (30" x 22") but has continued to shrink throughout the painting process.  After I painted the background, my starting point, I decided that there was too much background on the sides.  Hollyhocks are such a vertical flower, I really should have started with a longer, skinnier piece of paper.  I took a few inches off of one side, then a couple off of the other, then more off of the first side.  After that, I decided that there was too much stem on the bottom so off went more inches.  And finally, I took some off of the top to change the focal point of the painting.  I'm very happy with the final result even though the painting shrunk to 20.5" x 15.5".  Thank goodness that painting on paper gives the ability to change the composition after the fact.  Of course, if I were more careful with my initial composing, I wouldn't need to crop it later.

Hollyhocks seem to be one of my favorite flowers to paint.  With this painting, I feel like I've finally captured their delicate beauty.

Delicate Ruffles
Image Size 20.5" x 15.5"
Watercolor
Unframed

Category › flower paintings , hollyhock watercolor paintings , nancy goldman

Pink Pink Pink

I love Hollyhocks but haven't planted them in my yard for a while because the leaves always get rust and they don't look very good so I decided to paint them instead.  I used Ampersand Aquabord because it always makes the paintings sparkle.  The paint sits on the surface and the white reflects through the color  very strongly.  I hadn't worked on any aquabord larger than 5" x 5" in the past and this one is 11" x 14" which was a little more challenging.  It's hard (for me) to get smooth washes on larger areas so painting the blue sky was frustrating at first but I finally got it to look the way I wanted. The color is not smooth but I like the texture.  It's also easy to lift color and play with the color values on the aquabord.

I had to let this painting sit for a few weeks because it was looking really "sweet".  I have that problem when I paint pink flowers and blue sky.  The flowers were a very cool pink so I added some warmer pinks and crimsons to take some of the "sweetness" out of it.  I'm happy with it now.

Even though this is a watercolor, I have varnished it with a UV protecting varnish and it can be framed without glass.

Pink Pink Pink
Image Size 11" x 14"
Watercolor
Unframed
$160.00

Category › hollyhock watercolor paintings , nancy goldman , pink flower paintings

Santiago Canyon

I forgot to let you all know that both of the silk paintings in the last two posts were juried into the Chemers Gallery show and they will be there through May 29th. They didn't win any awards but at least they were juried into the show.

This painting was done quickly and I was trying for "loose". It's definitely looser than most of my paintings and it was really fun to do.

Santiago Canyon

Image Size 15" x 22"

Watercolor
Unframed
$330.00

Category › hollyhock watercolor paintings , nancy goldman , Santiago Canyon , stream paintings

Pink Hibiscus

First, I apologize for the blurry picture. I didn't have my regular camera with me on our vacation. We've been in Mexico for the past week and I painted this down there. I took many reference photos with me so I could paint a lot but I was so busy doing absolutely nothing that I didn't have much time to paint. :-) I painted this for an artist friend of mine that works at the resort where we stay so I don't have the actual painting here with me to take a better picture of it. Over the past few years, Vidal has given me several sketches that he's done so I thought it was about time for me to paint something for him. A few years ago I was painting out by the pool at the resort and he was watching what I was doing for quite a while from about 6 feet behind the table where I was working. I could tell that he had more of an interest in what I was doing than most people that watch an artist work so we started trying to converse. He speaks limited English and my Spanish is extremely pathetic but with the help of sign language we got our ideas across to each other. A couple of hours later, he brought me a sketch of a rose that he did for me on the back of one of the hotel's paper coasters using just a ballpoint pen. Since then, I take him art supplies every now and then because he doesn't have access to any in the small town in which he lives and he gives me artwork in return. I don't expect him to do that but you should see the sense of pride on his face when he sees how much I appreciate his work.

Three Hibiscus

Image size 4" x 6"

Watercolor

Category › hibiscus flower painting , hollyhock watercolor paintings , tropical flowers

Reach for the Sky

Wow, I'm really on a roll. Here is yet another project that was left unfinished for several years because my frustration level reached it's limit. This is a watercolor on watercolor canvas which, at the time, I thought was a brilliant new surface. That was until I tried it. I like to paint watercolors by building layer after layer of color, gradually achieving value contrasts. With this surface, when I tried to add another layer I lifted the previous one so it was hard to add dark values. I'm sure these canvases work well for many artists but it's not for me. This painting has been staring at me in the studio for far too long and I have been pushing myself to not give up on paintings so I decided to finish it. All I can say is that I'm glad it's done. I have one more of these watercolor canvases in my stash of art supplies but I will probably paint it with acrylics or oils unless I have a day where I'm feeling really adventurous.

Reach for the Sky

Image Size 14" x 11"

Watercolor on Canvas

Unframed

Category › hollyhock watercolor paintings , hollyhocks , watercolor painting on canvas