The Delphiniums finished...now onto the next one

As you know, I am working on a four-piece set of paintings of different flowers for my aunt. The last time I posted, the first one was a work-in-progress. Well, I'm glad to say that it's now finished...

I tried to stay true to my style. I kept it pretty organic and natural this time (as the subject matter is flowers) and I didn't even tape off the edges of the paper, like I normally do. I decided to just stick with a hand drawn edge. I showed this piece to my aunt last week while it was still a work in progress and she was very happy with how it was coming along. I was relieved to hear that because I was just about ready to scrap it and start over. Personally, I love this piece. Blues and purples are colors I love painting with (because they are my favorite colors) and how can you get more light-hearted and ethereal than flowers? Love it! I'm proud of this.

The next piece in the set that I am working on is of Hibiscus flowers, which are another of my aunt's favorites.

 It's coming along. As you can see, it is far from being finished. I plan on working on it a little more today. But right here is two days work (and I don't mean a full 24-hour day, obviously). But I'm keeping with the natural whimsy of it. I'm using frisket again because I like the effect it gave the first piece. I'm trying to stick with the same color scheme (underlying blues, purples, pinks, and teals) as well so all the pieces go together. For this piece I added a hummingbird. My aunt loves hummingbirds. She has a feeder on her back porch and she enjoys watching the hummingbirds come to visit. They are fascinating little creatures. This little guy is going to be a red-throated hummingbird, which are the kind that live around this area of the country. Apparently, there are different ones that live west of the Mississippi river.

Updates!

So the Sons of Turner premiere exhibition was a hit, I am glad to say. Unfortunately, I could not stay the entire evening, but while I was there, we had a lot of visitors, which was great. My parents really enjoyed the show as well. I was glad to be a part of it. I believe the show is going to stay up the remainder of the month, so head out to the Ontarioville Art Center in Hanover Park if you're interested.

me with my artwork

Also, today, I started working on a commission I'm doing for my aunt. She wants four paintings of delphinium and hibiscus flowers to hang in her living room. It was nice painting today because I haven't really flexed my painting muscles in a few weeks...which is awful. I had been temping at my old job for a couple of weeks (which was also great) but it didn't give me a lot of time or energy to work on art. Now that I've got nothing but time, it's the perfect thing. 

I started the first small painting of delphiniums today. It's turning out a lot like an illustration, but I am happy with it so far.

It's quite whimsical (I use that word WAY too much), but I like it. It's really up to what my aunt wants, though. And this is a work in progress. The yellow you see on there is frisket (masking fluid). Ahh, my old friend frisket. Actually, we never really were friends. It's always so clumpy and it completely ruins my brushes. No! I do not use my quality brushes, but even the cruddy brushes I use become more cruddy when frisket is added. Note to self: find better frisket. I'm currently using Utrecht brand that I purchased for my Watercolor I class two years ago. Maybe that is is why it's so clumpy? If anyone has any suggestions as to a better brand of frisket, do let me know!

Also I'm working on a Fluid Watercolor block that I bought at Blick the last time I was downtown. Unfortunately I do not have the kind of money at the moment to be buying expensive Arches blocks, so I thought this would be a good alternative, since a friend of mine recommended them. It's cold press, and I am now a hot press girl, but I don't mind cold press every now and then (that was all they had anyway). The paper is taking the paint well, and I tend to do a lot of wet-in-wet stuff, except the corner is starting to lift up.

Fluid blocks don't have glue all the way around the block like Arches ones do. They are just glued on two sides. I just thought this was kind of annoying. As long as it doesn't come detached all the way around, it should be ok. I guess I'm not going to be working on this for hours anyway. But that's just my little gripe. Otherwise, it's a great block.