Lanternes chinoises

We had a 50-50 weekend. Saturday was nice. but Sunday Irene caught up with us and it rained for an eternity. Nothing much to do other than some window shopping and playing around with watercolors and collage. I bought a bunch of chinese lanterns at the market and I did a quick sketched - it was getting dark outside.

Ghost town

Another painting - this one was more trouble. I managed to make mud in the first round and it took a while to get rid of that. Now I know what colors to use for glazes! This is how it started:

 The bottom is muddied up and all I could see were skulls...I had to do something! This is phase two:

 And finally:

It reminds me about the villages on the Amalfi coast in Italy...

Acquatic landscape

This is another painting I finished in the Land of the lost luggage. It started like this:

 and it became this:

 

 

I am pleased with the results, I think it is a step in the right direction.

Car show

Last weekend, I happened to be in Pointe-Claire just as the city was celebrating its 100 aniversary. Lots of activities and entertainment, lovely weather, big crowd. There was also an antique car show. Here are some pics:

 

They looked like candies stringed on the street...

Doodleland

I picked up Lynda Barry's Picture this and I found it as refreshing and inspiring as What it is. I was too tired after a long day at work, so I decided to give myself permission to doodle a la Lynda in my scrap journal.

 Here, some more creatures that emerged from watercolor splotches.

Lonesome

Photo inspired abstract painting from the Land of the lost luggage classes. It started like this:

This is a picture in the lava fields near Flagstaff, Arizona. The picture morphed first into this:

and finally into this:

I think I am starting to get a hang of this, but a lot more work is needed. I am very far from the 10 000 hours of practice that makes perfect ...

H&H

Hydrangea and hibiscus, that is. I bought these plants for the new patio - the hybiscus is a present.

Summer flowers

The field flowers were the next subject to practice on. They went from this:

to this:

Splotches of color - I could not figure out how to "make" those flowers ...

Artichoke

A while back I established a moratorium on buying art supplies. I must confess that I broke the rule and I bought 6 tubes of Omer deSerres watercolors on sale for 1.49$. The tubes should allow for different color mixes.
Here is the palette I made up with those colors:

I chose an artichoke to practice my newly acquired paints:

Hibiscus

My friend Kathee visited over the weekend and she brought me a nice present - a hibiscus plant. This one has huge flowers the sive of desert plates and pinkish. This is supposed to be a hardy kind of plant ment to survive the winters here. That remains to be seen, but for now I am enjoying the blooms. I sketched a bloom and I will take a pic as soon as the new blooms open up.

Flower sketch

 

Last Friday, I was so tired that all I could manage to do was a quick sketch of a plant from a photo I found on Jane LaFazio's blog. And of course I had to come up with another weird face ...

I wish I had time to take nice pictures and have one nice blog ...maybe one day.