Assignment 10 Malmfälten: Konst på distans: Washes and wet on wet

Chinese kites

Yak skull

Hibiscus

Carp in lilly pond, Bamboo Park, Chengdu.

The top two pictures were painted specifically for this lesson. I had a huge amount of problems because of the almost total lack of light in wintertime Chengdu. The kites were painted from a photograph I took in summertime. The teacher commented that I should add more washes to create more shadows and depth. The yak skull is from a skull I have in my workroom, but I would have loved more light to create more interesting shadows. Both were done with Van Gogh watercolors in a tube.

The carp in the lilly pond was my probably my first attempt at watercolors. Painted a few years ago on very poor paper lacking both weight and structure. The hibiscus is my second watercolor, a hibiscus outside our bungalow in Thailand, three Christmases ago. Made on proper cold-pressed watercolor paper, Cotman paints, nothing special. Boring subject (HOW MANY hibiscuses have been painted in this world??) but an easy flower to paint. It's important to feel good about your paintings!

Assignment 9 Malmfälten: Konst på distans: Seasons

Winter

Summer

Spring

Autumn

Watercolor - color! Express the Four Seasons in watercolor. Color interpretation and seasons are very personal. The teacher thought my autumn was aggressive, threatening, meat-eating flowers! I only thought of the colors of autumn and depressing winter around the corner.

# 52 Today's picture 090322

Lily pond, Bamboo Park (Wangjiang Lou), Chengdu, Sichuan. Watercolour ©IBM

What to do on a rainy day

Lotus pods 090221 ©IBM

All was not lost when we visited the Art Museum on Saturday. On the ground floor is a cheap and quite large (albeit very musty-dusty) selection of artist materials in a lobby shop, so we bought some watercolor paper etc and spent the rest of the day painting to loud music. Lot's of fun and a great way to spend a rainy day. 

To the right of the entrance to the Art Museum is another much better, not at all decrepit, art material shop that was buzzing with activity and bohemian looking artist types with long beards and berets. This is a great place to shop for equipment and supplies, very affordable. Let those creative juices flow! 

Miche Booz

All images kind permission ©Miche Booz

Here is another artist that I greatly admire and someone who also happens to be my brother-in-law: Miche Booz. His colors are wonderful and I find myself often going to his website to soak up some sunshine and life. He works in watercolor and mixed media and is an architect by profession. Please enjoy. 

Hibiscus

Drawing/photo ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

More geckos

Drawing ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn/Burton Booz

Here is the original drawing of the tokay gecko before manipulation (see below "Geckos galore"). Burton (11 years old) did the pencil drawing, I colored.