My Paintings for the World Watercolor Month -- July 2022 -- Painting Challenge

 This challenge was just the incentive I needed to get back into the habit of painting every day, and then sharing them.  Each day, (well, more like every other day), I posted a painting that I had finished that day, as well as one of my past paintings.  Here are the paintings that I posted on Instagram and Facebook, in July.  

This is one of the many paintings I did of the Durango-Silverton train, while we were living in Durango.

This is from a photo my husband took of me on the train to Siena from Florence.

This is part of a large painting I did, a few years ago.  I always did like it, but never got around to matting and framing it.

This was a quick painting I did of these sunflowers, that are growing in my garden like weeds. 

Maybe they are weeds, but I still love seeing them!

Just a cut-up watermelon, arranged on one of my new plates.

This "Melon Melange" was painted 15 years ago, on handmade paper.  I loved that paper (which I can't get anymore), because each 10" square was a little different, with a beautiful deckled edge.  

The paper really soaked up the watercolor, and so it was impossible to get a clean edge to my shapes.  So, I started to outline the shapes, before I started painting, with a quill pen and metallic liquid acrylic.  This acted like a dam for the watercolor paint, and gave me that clean edge.

                               A quick plein-aire painting of the red geraniums on my front porch. 

I painted these butterflies, using a "batik" method. 

I love the gold/turquoise color combination of this painting.

This is a close-up of some of my blue scarves, hanging in my closet.

One of the many day lilies in my garden.  I don't think I did it justice.  

This is one little painting from my "Poppy" series.  These were painted on cradled Aquabord. 

 The contour lines are Pearlescent Liquid Acrylic.

This is actually the bottom half of a painting I did this year.  

I small painting of apples, and Gary the Snail, that I did for the Colorado Governor's Show, in 2017.

A demo I did during this year's Painted Prism Art Retreat in Estes Park.  We were inspired by the French painter, Rosa Bonheur.  (She painted more horses and lions than birds, but still . . . I was inspired!)

Another painting for the Colorado Governor's Show in 2017. 

This is a painting I did for a step-by-step tutorial, 

which is part of my on-line Watercolor Mentoring Course.

This was from a photo I had taken of the really cool mosaic floor of the Terv, 

an old restaurant in Budapest, where we had a yummy bowl of authentic goulash.

Part of a large painting, from 20 years ago.

These lilies were part of a series I did of the Bouchard Gardens, outside of Victoria, BC. 

 The entire series was painted in this "Painted Prism" style.

A small quick painting of the dahlias in my garden.

This is the top half of the painting from above.

 

I'm really happy with how this painting turned out -- 

my husband holding his sleeping grandson. 

My husband again, with a sleeping son, this time.

These are my youngest grandkids, and I love the photo this was painted from. I am not that happy with how this painting turned out, though, because it was so small (8x8).  I will definitely do this again, larger, so I can get better likenesses.  So, I think of this as a sketch, or study.

These are my four oldest grandchildren (who are now in college, or out of college) -- 

playing on King's Beach, at Lake Tahoe.  We were celebrating my 60th birthday.

I call this one, "Remy's Roses", because she helped her dad grow them, 

and she and I spent one afternoon, sketching and painting them together.

 

I love the way this turned out!  Again, with my favorite color combination of gold and turquoise.

This is one of the beautiful flowers from my huge "Rose of Sharon" bush in the backyard garden.

I love the way the flowers fold up at night, like they're sleeping, and then open up again every morning.  My husband is trying to win the battle with the Japanese beetles.  

This is part of a larger painting that was done about 5 years ago.

 I used multiple glazes, to get these nice rich colors and textures.

The spattered texture on this little rabbit painting was really an experiment .  

On my initial wet-in wet underpainting, when I usually use salt to get some texture, 

I used a salt-substitute, called Dulce. It's dark, instead of white, and it stayed dark. 

I couldn't even brush it off.  So this is more of a mixed-media painting now.  

This is one of my favorite paintings, 

and is now hanging over the hearth of

one of my best friends.