I haven’t shared much artwork recently, so I thought I’d catch you all up. Some of these will be paintings you can look forward to seeing in my shop in the near future. Some are just for fun practice type pieces.

I love painting flowers. If you’ve been reading for a while you know that. They are my go to when I’m stuck in a rut, or when I really want to paint but just don’t feel inspired to do so, I always find flowers to paint. I know it’s not spring currently, but sometimes I just need some color in my life!

I was scrolling through a variety of free photo sites when I happened upon tulip photos, bright, colorful tulips. That was what I needed. I loved this reference image because it had 2 colors that aren’t usually paired together, orange and purple. As I’m typing this, I’m thinking Halloween. So, not paired together in the spring anyway.

This painting took around 4 hours total, but almost a week in my spare time. I loved coming into my dining room (that’s where my paint table is) and seeing the bright orange and purple colors, they made me smile every time I walked in the room, or walked past the room. This one is one of my favorites.

The next painting is of a train track at sunset. I actually painted something similar many, many years ago in acrylic. The acrylic one I put in a frame and it sits in the window sill right next to my painting table. I look at it often. I decided one day to try it in watercolor.

The acrylic one is very bold colors, bright red and yellow sky, black trees silhouetted against the sky, dark grasses and flowers along the track and the glistening track in the center fading away into the sunset.

The watercolor version ended up being much brighter. The sky is quite bright with the fading sunset, the trees have color, and I’ve included different types of trees this time. The grass and flowers are visible and beautiful, and the track still runs into the distance ahead, glistening in the fading sunlight. I love how this one turned out as well, but I do still love the acrylic one, which will stay in my window sill so I can enjoy it.

The third one I did last night. I have been debating on filming short tutorials again, then probably adding them here on my website rather than YouTube. I needed something to paint, and it needed to be quick as it was after 11:00 PM when I got started.

The painting took less than 20 minutes. The filming worked I think, but I will be checking and editing that later today. I used Sepia for my color, which is a color I used to use a lot but haven’t for year. I like the old photo type feel it gives to this painting. It was a fun little experiment that you might be able to watch some time in the future.

The last piece that I painted recently, and probably one of my all time favorites, was a chicken head. I had painted a quick one at a market this past summer, and someone said I should put it on a note card. It wasn’t the best picture by any means, but I filed away the comment for a future me to think about.

In the class I’m teaching I asked for suggestions for upcoming subject matter. Someone mentioned chickens and it brought back the idea of a chicken looking at you on a card. I went looking for reference photos and found several really fun chickens.

I decided on the black one, and went to work painting it ahead of class so I could see how long it would actually take to paint. It took 2 hours and I felt like I could speed up the process for the class as we usually have about 1 1/2 hours. When I was finished, it just made me smile. I usually don’t paint just fun pictures very often, and this chicken is just that, a fun little painting.

As I finished it, my mind was already racing ahead to what I could possibly do with it on products. I ended up making several water bottles, adding it to waffle towels, and making note cards out of it. This is one you’ll definitely see in the near future in my shop.

As I hinted to above, I am looking into making some quick (and maybe some longer) video tutorials. I’m thinking about offering these tutorials for individual purchase here on my website with lifetime access to the purchased tutorials rather than a subscription or something like that. As I get more videos I will probably offer bundles of similar subject matter as well. This is still in the planning stages, so we’ll see where it ends up.

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