Sunday, January 22, 2012

Watercolor

This week I worked with watercolors. I found it the most challenging medium so far. It is very unforgiving. I tend to get a little precious and too realistic which doesn't work well unless you are quite experienced. I therefore developed a faster and looser method involving usually wetting the paper first and drawing faces directly with the brush. I limited my palette. It was quick and fun. I usually painted at least ten in two hours, although I didn't save them all. Here are samples from each day:




























You can view the whole series here.

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We went to Paris at the end of last week to stay with Quinn while Emily and Jos had a night away at a nearby spa. It was their last opportunity before the baby arrives. We helped a bit with preparations. While we were there, we all took a stroll to Parc de la Villette which I have written about before. It is not far from Emily's house and it is a great place to give Quinn an opportunity to practice on his new "early rider" bike (what a great invention!) In a section of this huge urban park, one I had never noticed before, there are many huge mirrors installed among the trees. We were there right at dusk and had a lot of fun playing hide and seek behind trees and reflections of trees. It was quite enchanting.




Back at home one evening we had thick fog which made the world outside our windows even more magical than usual. The village lights come on just before sunset and they reflected off the stone and softened the atmosphere, making golden accents amidst the purple haze.






Each night on these winter evenings, Rick builds a cozy fire in our wood stove. It warms the entire third floor apartment. We settle down for a quiet evening at home.


3 comments:

  1. Oh Nancy...you are such a wonderful artist. I love what you are doing with your watercolors...Monday and Friday are my favorites. Wednesday reminds me of a young Hitler image.

    Your fog photos are enchanting...they are reminiscent of the parting scene in 'Gone With the Wind" where Rhett walks away from Scarlet in a thick fog.

    Remind me please..when is Emily due and do you know the sex?

    Stay warm and cozy my friend and hello to the Mr.

    Janet xox
    The Empty Nest

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  2. I love your new project, and I'm so impressed with what you're doing—mainly because of the variety you're putting out! The faces are all so different, and also the styles are so different from stuff you've done before, I guess because you're putting yourself out of your comfort zone. Amazing! I like pen and ink and watercolor the best. I just love the lines on the pen and ink faces. What are you drawing from? Pictures?

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  3. Jimmie Hendrick's Purple Haze was never this beautiful!!!!! Zack and I LOVED these fog photos!!!

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