Thursday, November 6, 2008

Dipping a Brush into Watercolors

It has long been my desire to aquire the skills to capture the beauty of my garden in watercolors. Lately I have been lucky to have found a wonderful teacher and mentor in Fredericksburg area watercolorist Ariel Freeman. I met Ariel a year ago at a local art group meeting and she was just begining to enter the teaching world. It has only taken 6 months or so for her classes to become very popular as Ariel has a wonderful relaxed teaching style and is incredibly supportive of her students. Everyone of her students has been successful with their work!!!!!
I entered her classes with absolutely NO EXPERIENCE in this medium. I want to share my first two paintings with you now.
This first attempt was painted from a photo that I took of the daylillies in my garden.

This piece is 11x17 and provided many opportunities for a steep learning curve. Ariel was masterful in her explanation of how to layer the glazes of color and she also taught me how to paint negative space (painting the area around an object rather than the object itself.) I gave the impression of background foliage using negative space painting.

Here are a few more close up shots.

This painting will be framed and hung in the Student's Art show at Liberty Town Arts Center in Fredericksburg, in January.

Here is my second painting.

This piece is a bit smaller, only 8x10. We used salt in the center of the flower to achieve all of that wonderful texture that I love so much. I felt such confidence while a worked on this painting and I will be continueing to take classes with Ariel!

11 comments:

Plum Blossom Lane said...

Love the sunflowers! One of my fave flowers.

Julie said...

Wow, Elizabeth! You have made a great start here. You can see an improvement already in the second painting, your use of the watercolour is much more controlled. Well done. Enjoy your lessons, you have a great teacher.

Cheryl Gebhart said...

Elizabeth - you are such a great artist, I'm not at all surprised that you would master watercolor - both paintings are beautiful!

artbeth67 said...

These are GORGEOUS, Elizabeth! WOW! You are so talented in so many ways! :)

Mary Z said...

OMG Elizabeth - they are absolutely amazingly gorgeous!! It must be exciting to look at these and realize you painted them!! beautifully done!
Mary Z

Bel said...

Hi Elizabeth your flowers are absolutely gorgeous, I wish I could paint like that and being your first attempt well you should be proud of yourself.

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

Wow you did a wonderful job - I can't believe you didn't already have experience with the medium..

Barbara said...

AMAZING WORK! simply loveleeeee!!!

hugz

Mo said...

WOWEEEEEE! Is there anything you CAN'T do??? No, I didn't think so. Bee-you-tee-full!!! Love ya ~ Mo

Gina said...

That is awesome for no expeirence! I wish she would come my way because that is one of my goals to do watercolors.

Jacky said...

Elizabeth you are doing a wonderful job with these watercolours... LOVE the sunflower.

Look forward to seeing more of your watercolours.

Jacky xox

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