This is a watercolor of Billie the cat. He is a 20 year old black cat that we visited in Rayleigh, Essex UK this month. He is the sweetest thing, with a purry meow. He spends a lot of time napping, and was happy to pose for me.
Today I painted a Powder Blue Primrose that I saw bloombing in Rayleigh, UK. Trying to work on practicing watercolor. So many of my students paint in watercolor – so I think it is good practice to keep up with my skills. Plus…. I can’t carry around my favored painting medium, large scale oil painting supplies! 🙂 As with all my latest works, prints are available. To check out this image, click here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/joannaalmasude/works/38104985-powder-blue-primrose-flowers-watercolor-from-england-uk?asc=u&p=framed-print
Ta-da a Flowering Currant Bush. And I want to credit and thank my art teacher from elementary school, Karen Larrabee for finding the name of this flower for me. So, yes, I have given in … and painted more flowers. There are a number of factors playing into this extremely unusual activity of painting in watercolor … and painting … flowers.
First there is the fact that I am traveling abroad. I can’t take along my large canvases, oil paints and brushes etc. etc.. Ahhh to be at home in my studio, painting. I started a large painting in the fall that needs my attention. I hope I will have lots of time for that when I get back to Port St. Lucie in May.
Besides the limitations of traveling for 4 months, I have literally been bombarded with flowers. Certainly, that is no excuse to deviate from my normal themes. However, walking around England I am continuously drawn to the flowers. Maybe it the season (winter to spring), maybe it’s just my mood. But I think I will do a series of flowers while in Europe…. then that will be the end of it.
Finally, I have been working on getting more prints available for sale. People occasionally purchase prints of my work. And, I get a lot of requests of prints…. so my New Year’s resolution for 2019 is to be more diligent and get more of my artwork available to the public. So for anyone interested in purchasing a framed print of my Brexit Flower, follow this link!
https://www.redbubble.com/people/joannaalmasude/works/38065236-brexit-flower-watercolor-painting-of-a-flowering-currant-bush?asc=u&p=framed-print
Typically, I do not paint flowers…. but I have been drawn to them here in Europe. Taken a lot of photos of flowers. Here is a quick little watercolor sketch I did yesterday of Grape Hyacinth.
Today I did a quick sketch of the Lagrasse Abbey. It’s wintertime and very cold. The colors are very muted – but I thought the dried tall grass (a nice yellow ocher) was the most interesting part of the image. I do have a hard time staying interested in images that lack people or animals, but this was very quick sketch. This Abbey is currently being renovated – thus the scaffolding around the tower. It was a good exercise to get back into the groove of creating on this long trip abroad.
