Feast or Famine

I seem to be painting in waves here. No pun intended. Here are two more that were completed yesterday and luckily Don was in the mood to shoot them last night.

"Summer Storm" Watercolor on Arches 140# CP (11x17)

"Summer Storm" is inspired by another image from our 2007 trip to England. Same road as Greener Pastures. The trees behind the barn were not planned but as is often the case with watercolor, you get happy accidents. At first I was upset that my sky appeared to be marred when the green field bled into it but now I like it.

"California Edge" (Title pending)

If I'm going to be honest I have to tell you that this one started out a lot larger. I intended it to have Bixby Bridge on the left but for some reason it was distracting and didn't seem to fit with the natural coastline and led the eye away from the water and cliffs. Funny thing, that. The bridge IS awesome though. We will always refer to it as the "Bronson Bridge" because it was used in the ancient and short-lived TV series Then Came Bronson starring Michael Parks in which he drove his motorcycle across it in the opening credits. It's located on the Big Sur highway and is quite impressive—just not so much in my painting.

I'm a little behind in listing new work but these will also be added to my Etsy shop.

Greener Pastures

No, that is not a euphemism or a witty title for a profound post about going anywhere. It's just the title of my latest watercolor. But it IS a good title though I can't take credit for it. I owe that to my friend Barbara whom I've known for longer than we care to admit (ok, 5th grade) if only because it makes us feel old. I posted the painting on Facebook when I was at a loss for a title and it prompted a stream of interesting suggestions, many of which I almost used because they made me giggle. I think my favorite of those was a team effort between two people who don't even know each other with one posting her suggestion of "The Hills are Alive" (perfectly fine title) and the next friend posting "With the sound of mooing". I loved it. And since the painting is of countryside between Bath and Stonehenge there was a stream of bath-related titles that were amusing as well—some with a French twist such as Aprés Bath Vache. It was fun but I settled on Greener Pastures because it seemed to fit both the scene and my thoughts about England as well. And I guess when it gets right down to it I would love to head back to those greener pastures where the hills are alive with the sound of mooing.

And thank you Barb. xo

Greener Pastures

New painting needs a title

I finished this the other day but in my excitement of working on setting up this blog I forgot to add it here. I welcome your suggestions for a title. I am running out of ideas for my island/sailing series. 

"Untitled (so far)"

6x14 Watercolor on 140# Arches Coldpress