Day 16 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Lone Sunflower"    $75
Watercolor      10" x 7" image

Today was such a special day, where I again tried my hand at plein air painting with another group near Venice, FL.  This time, we were on a private farm where there were countless opportunities for great painting ideas.   I really enjoyed myself and again met many new artist friends.  So, the day went by without time to paint my challenge painting for the day.
Before I knew it, the time was 7:00 p.m., so I took the easy way out and painted another loose sunflower.  These paintings only take about 1 1/2 hours to paint, but the timing is such that it can fail really quickly if you're not careful.  This painting again started with my new special technique, where I used a toilet paper roll to get special effects  Read how this happened on Day 14's blog post.  Then I worked wet into wet and painted really fast to keep the loose fuzzy edges.

Step One

Day 15 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Heart on a Stick"      $75
Watercolor and Collage      7" x 10"

"Heart on a Stick" started out as a scavenger hunt.  I cut out words from a magazine and even though I cut off the top and the bottom of the word, "Scavenger", I could still read it.  So, my first title for this was was to be, "Scavenger Hunt".  Then as the painting progressed, I saw this heart shape at the top of the long vertical white strip, so I went with it!  I love the color combination of this one.  My colors were Holbein opera pink, Winsor Newton cad yellow, scarlet lake, permanent rose, Holbein cobalt turquoise light. I love the vibration of the turquoise against the red and orange colors.  Below is the first stage of this painting.  If you look closely behind the heart area on the finished painting, you might even imagine the word, Love.  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Step 1- Watercolor and Collage

Day 14 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

I've been painting side by side with my friends, Karlyn Holman and Tammy Kennen for the past couple of days.  Karlyn paints much more loosely than I do, and so I decided to do a "loosey goosey" painting.  I asked if anyone had a brayer so I could so some fun linework.  No one did, so I got inventive and decided to use the side of a toilet paper roll!  The marks that it made were so fun.  I think I will teach a class with this technique!  (The picture is below)  Look closely at the painting above and you will see the linework that was in the first layer.  I painted mostly in the "wet in wet "technique.  Fun to do!

Day 13 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"You Never Walk Alone"     $75
Watercolor and Collage      (7" x 10")

I painted this while visiting a good friend who lives in Sanibel Island, FL.  Every year, Karlyn Holman, Tammy, and I do this.  I started with a watercolor collage just like the other paintings.  (See below)

Then, it's a matter of lots of layering and watching for the bounce of color vibrations.  I had so much fun painting next to friends, lots of laughs, and lots of stories.  This is such a fun workshop to teach.  Check out my website to see a location near you!

Day 12 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Bird on a Branch"      $75
Watercolor and Collage     7" x 10" image
Wow!  I'm over 1/3 done with this challenge.  It has been a tough time crunch for me, as usual.  Right now, I'm visiting a friend who lives in Sanibel Island, FL.  We are painting together during the day and taking a boat ride at sundown.  Yes, it's a tough life.  But, my point is that life does get in the way of these challenges, and you just have to get ahead if you know that busy times are ahead.  For the collage of this one, I used a copy of an earlier wire drawing.  This is part of my workshop for Dillman's Resort, where we use earlier drawings to enhance new paintings.  I'm hoping to do an abstract person in one of the new few paintings.  Time will tell if that happens.

S=Day 11 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Wine with Friends"      $75
Watercolor, Collage, Acrylic painting       7" x 10"

I had started this several days ago, and just didn't quite know what to do with the beginning, so I thought, why not add a couple of wine glasses, since I had collaged the word, "Wine", in the painting.  That's when my problems started.  It's really hard to add something "real" in these abstract paintings without a "plan" beforehand.  But, I stuck it out and kept layering till I got a painting that I was happy with. I actually had to get out my acrylics though and my Molotow markers (acrylic markers) for details.  This is what I call an illusionary painting.  My goal was to have the viewer search a little bit for the wine glasses, so they are partially transparent and ghostly.  Here are my steps, for you to see the progression of this painting. 

Step 1- first wash and adding collage

Step 2- Negative painting around wine glasses
and making a dark pathway to the edges.

Day 10 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Valentine Wishes"         $75
Watercolor and Collage          7" x 10"

Happy Valentines Day a few days early.  I wanted to post this one now, in case anyone wants to purchase this for their sweetheart or possibly for themselves.  The hearts in this painting truly just showed up!  I love the way the big heart seems to be breaking up into little hearts and then they are blown in the wind, as if you were blowing a kiss.  May you all have a special Valentine's Day!  Love yourselves and be happy! 

Day 9 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Looped on Life"       $75
Watercolor and Collage      7" x 10"   

 This is one of  my favorites of this challenge.  I started like usual, and the collage pieces that had loops.  So in the finishing touches, I added line-work, using my wire drawing technique, to repeat the loops from the collage.  I'm teaching this technique at several workshops coming up.  Bradenton, FL on April 10th and at Dillman's Resort in northern WI on June 18 - 21.  It's my new favorite thing to do!  It has helped ALL of my artwork AND I'm a better drawer now too.   Check out my website, www.karenknutson.com  to see my schedule.

Day 8 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Size 10 Dreams"     Watercolor and Collage
7" x 10"           $75

In this painting, I used pattern pieces for the collage, and there it was, "Size 10".  Look in the bottom middle to find it.  Yes, I used to be a size 10, and I used to sew a lot of my own clothing.  Those days are over, but I can dream about again getting back to that size.  We are taking daily walks now that we are in sunny Florida.  Maybe that will help.  Below is the first step to this painting, dry brush watercolor and adding collage.  I used the butterfly napkin as my color inspiration for this one.

First step of this painting

Day 7 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"New World"    7" x 10"
Watercolor, collage, metallics       $75

This painting was the hardest one that I've done so far in this challenge.  I used a wire drawing sketch that I'd done in early December.  I absolutely LOVE doing wire drawings.  The abstract patterns that evolve always surprise me.  Below is the value study. 

I will be teaching a 4 day workshop at Dillman's Resort in northern WI on June 18 - 21st with this process and how I use it in most of my paintings now.  By the end of the week, everyone will be doing a large abstract painting that they attained due to the wire drawing exercises earlier.  I can't decide which direction that I like this best.  My other choice is as a vertical.  Try turning the image to the right, and see which way you like it.  I decided to add gold foil paper as an extra bling. It's so shiny and inviting.  The painting is called "New World" because I think it looks like a magic is happening with the circle and our new world is beyond.