Art Class Printmaking

My classes for the next few weeks will be doing print making. Here are some artist trading cards I made in preparation. If you’re NOT in my classes, I’ll still swap; give me a holler. Some of the qualities in art that I find important are layers, texture, color and contrast.  Hopefully you can find those things here. If you want to learn a little more, look for my video on these cards which I will post right after this. Once my students get a handle on making prints with some of the elements I just mentioned I’m going to have them make artist trading cards so we can all trade. FUN!

Cool, huh.  Note how the colors change with the light.  These are special, handmade watercolors.

An Artist’s Palette

Here’s one of my watercolor palettes.  Isn’t it beautiful?  ❤️ I squeeze paint from tubes onto the palette and let it dry.  

The squares in the middle are paints I bought separately, called pans. They’re magnetized, so I just plopped them down. 

 Once everything’s dry, I rehydrate it by spraying all the paints to soften them up. In a minute, they’re ready to go!   You never want to use watercolor directly from a tube. 

The last pic shows my clean palette.  I never go onto the paint itself when I’m cleaning up; that’s too expensive - just around it.  Now it’s all ready for the next time. #watercolorartist

Watercolor Sketch

Sometimes I end up liking the weirdest stuff.  This pencil sketch of a tree took me all of a minute.  Painting it probably took all of five minutes.  And I like it!  Who knew? This painting used Ruby Mountain’s awesome Indigo, their Paris Green and coolest-ever Naples Yellow.  Ruby Mountain, LOVE your paints!

You would also notice my phone up there; I ALWAYS use an Otterbox.  I chose to have a ‘pretty’ phone case and my phone lasted three weeks.  Yep.  Tried and true Otterbox person here.  On my phone case is a sticker of one of my paintings.  Did you know?  I sell stickers?  Yep.  Find them on my website with all kinds of lovely things: www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

Watercolor Fun

A nice cold day.  Good for walks and fires and watercolors.  It’s not often I get a chance to sit down and paint for pure joy.  The other day on a walk I looked up and saw sweet gum boughs and thought, ‘I could paint sweet gum...’.

Recently I got some new watercolors that are highly sedimentary and some have mica in them to add some pizzazz.  Likey!  I am a tried and true fan of Golden’s QOR watercolors; they are simply the best.  But recently I purchased some handmade watercolors from Ruby Mountain Watercolors and am wholeheartedly impressed!  

This shows my little sweet gum design from start to finish.  You would also note that you can see light pencil lines.  I’m a big fan of understanding the process and love to peer into paintings and figure out how they were done.  Those light pencil lines in my work are your first clue! 

Testing out the paints.  I always do this on nice paper and find a way to repurpose it; cards, bookmarks, ATC cards, etc.

Ruby Mountain paints.  Look them up!  Well worth it.  I think my dive into handmade watercolors may cost me dearly....

Finished piece. :). Happy

Cool Watercolor Leaves

On this hot summer day what we need is a nice cool painting.  This watercolor of leaves fits the bill!  I went to a ‘Picasso Black and White’ exhibit which blew me away and this painting is one of the resultant pieces, giving my friend Pablo a nod.  In that exhibit they showed a lot of ‘negative space’ paintings he did... painting the background AROUND the subject.  I have learned to love this technique!  This one is for sale at colorcatstudios101.etsy.com.  Look me up!

colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

Here you have some nice closeups so you can really see the layers.  

Love these layers.  Such nice depth.  

Watercolor Lilies

I couldn’t resist the lilies at Kroger’s.  Well, I did resist buying them, but couldn’t resist photographing them.  This is a diptych, two pieces that together make one.  You can see how my watercolor progressed.  My shoulder is  starting to feel a little better and my head is clearing enough so that I can do a little painting these days.  Yay, finally!  It was Jamie Wyeth that said ‘Painting is as difficult as brain surgery.  It’s not that relaxing, but that’s the discipline.’ I have thought of that quote so many times this summer as people have asked, “Which shoulder did you have surgery on? Oh, the left, and you’re right handed? Good!  That means you can paint!”  I just smiled, but alas and alack, not so.  I agree with Jamie Wyeth.  But now, NOW... I am coming back!

Spring Break Abstracts

My business, Color Cat Studios, is two-fold.  It often feels like multitudinous-fold. One side is my paintings.  I both sell my finished ones and take commissions for what others want me to paint.  When people ask me to paint something, the first thing I ask them to do is look at my art and see if they like it, and choose particular works so I know what style they desire. If they don’t like my style I send them elsewhere.  

Another side of my business is teaching art.  Oh my GOODNESS I LOVE kids! I teach formal classes to kids ages 9-21 and we both love and inspire each other.  I’ll also teach adults at art conventions, art gatherings, speak at business gatherings, etc.  I absolutely ADORE painting for theater; it’s about the only time I get to paint as big as I want.  

Now we come to spring break - whew!  I’m really excited and relieved to have a break.  It’s time to refresh myself.  One way I do this is by working on abstracts.  I love this one, done with good old Brusho pigments.  These pigments are ... well, pure pigment with no vehicle.  I really love these and use them often.  Anyway, HAPPY SPRING BREAK!!! 

A Spring Floral

When I paint flowers I always paint in joy.  And there’s nothing like a fresh watercolor painting of flowers to soothe the soul. This is actually a mixed media piece with all sorts of hidden things which will pull you into its rainbow of mystery. A tiny work on paper with a tiny price.  Find it on my website, 

colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

And another closeup..

This piece has some really cool textures in it.  My studio is open; get a hold of me and I’ll give you a free tour.  Everything looks ever so much better in person!!

Watercolors

Oh my goodness I love watercolors!  I usually use tube watercolors but am stepping out and trying some liquids for a change.  Yes, because the bottles were pretty; that’s a valid reason for purchase.

These bottles glowing in the sun really do make me want to get busy!

 Sometimes even one color will inspire me, then I’m off painting again. What inspires you?

Watercolor Sketch of Duckling

Inspired by the little babies that congregated under our picnic table (wonder why) I did this quick little watercolor sketch of one of my newfound friends. Made it messy, just like a duckling must certainly be!

Floral Artwork, Patterns

Here is the floral pattern I’ve been working on in my studio. Inspired by my big, red hibiscus. Thinking I’d pick up a backpack if it had this pattern. Would you?

This could work for all kinds of things - cushions, drapes, and anything for the interior. That would be one cheery room!  I would love to have this in a room filled with light and plants and wicker.

My dilemma as I was working was to keep it simple.  As any artist works, there are so many decisions to make.

I had to fight my desire to paint the background (all white) either a deep blue or black.  That would be showy and nice, but I wanted to keep this one light.

Because watercolor is such a fresh, immediate medium, I also had to fight the desire to ‘finish’ it by adding details in the flower centers and leaves.  I felt that would detract from the beautiful bleeds and bloomed of the watercolor movement and flow.  It might have erased it and covered it altogether!

Another decision was to NOT add darks for shading and dimension.  I wanted to keep it slightly flat.  Also to add the shading would have opened up the possibility of overworking the painting.

I think these were all good decisions.  In fact... I like it! :) Do you?

Painting Sold

This one is sold and tomorrow will be wending its way to its new owner. You would note that I added a little rust into the mix per the client’s request. Love the added color, and now it will compliment their beautiful silk carpet. Absolutely love the rich new dimension added into the mix!

Below shows my original painting.  They request that salmon be added and I really love the difference!

Art Experimentation

I’ve been doing some experiments with oil sticks on top of mixed media and liking the results.  These are the pearlescent and metallic ones, and the illusion is that they’re actually floating on top of the watercolor.  Pretty cool.  Tonight I’m going to post a video of it to explain a bit more. 

In the Art Studio with My Watercolors

This is, I think, the most honest art form for me.  When I’m tired or worn out, in a hurry or just needing to lay down some color, it usually comes back to something like this.  And it always seems to be an expression of flowers, to which I am so deeply and intricately connected. The layers of color, the compliments and the bleeds satisfy me in a very deep way.  Not to mention the highly pigmented, super bright QOR watercolors made by Golden.

My Art Studio and Paintbrushes

Today is National Honor Your Brushes Day. Or at least statewide.  Or maybe Houston-wide.  All right, all right, it’s The Johnson Household Honor Your Brushes Day!  Yippee!  Love these three; they’re Fleur brushes handmade in Italy.  Best paint-holding brushes I have ever owned.  They soak it up and hold it.  My biggest one (not pictured) even has a center reservoir. 

Work in Studio

Dang.  I was going to drink that. Paint water coffee.  This happens on occasion and you would think I’d learn.  ApparentlyI never do. Well, it wasn’t wasted; I just used the coffee to cover a couple pages to get a nice background neutral stain going.  Art that not only looks good, but SMELLS good!  Coffee artists arise!

Tiny Art

Finally! And once again, it’s... bum de da bum... Teeny Tiny Art Time! Hooray! This little baby reflects just how much work it takes to 1-grow things, and 2- make art. Oh the things we create when the wheels in our little heads spin. Colorcatstudios101.etsy.com is my website if you’d like to check out my other work.

Portrait of a Son

Ah! Haha! Our oldest son has a great red beard of which he is deservedly proud. I included maps in the collage because he travels a lot and a crossword puzzle which my dad worked. He aced those puzzles until he died at 96. Seemed fitting to honor that creative, intelligent and ever curious heritage of ours. I love that I captured his wry sense of humor and beard-pride. 

Yes, I do commissions large and small.

Mixed Media Flowers, Sketchbook

Sketchbook moments. My sketchbooks are my idea and recipe books which I refer back to all the time. Here, experimenting with some neutrals using Pitt pens, QOR watercolors and those awesome Molotow chrome markers. The neutrals make those little bright spots all the more sweet. Like coffee and chocolate. Uh... hold on, I hear the coffee and chocolate call....

Anyway, I tossed some salt in as well to add texture and interest. I like it!

Mixed Media Art

I’m leading my students through mixed media and we are layering it on. First, a quick sketch, then words, watercolor, gesso, textures, more color, gel medium and those awesome Molotow chrome markers. A tribute to my personal favorite, the buckeye butterfly. I love the way those textures separate the mixed paint pigments.

The blue pigment is sedimentary. It separates out on top of gesso. ❤️