Favourite decorative art pieces – part one

I’m planning on putting up a few posts on this same topic.

You’re probably not like me, and can’t bear to part with any of your paintings, but I have actually kept very few of my own folk art / decorative art pieces.

They have either gone off to another home (usually one of my sisters), or I just couldn’t bear to look at it after a while, because I wasn’t happy with the quality of the work.

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Pansies in Watercolour

These were painted out of a watercolour instructional book, can’t remember which one.

The colours are so vibrant. Often when painting in watercolour, the final colour can be a little insipid, if you’re not careful.

I’m discovering very quickly that the key to watercolour painting, is judging if your painting is at the right stage of wetness, before applying more paint.

Another doodle sketch

Another sketch on 300gms smooth watercolour paper.

These are such fun to do.

Pots are great subjects, coming in all shapes and sizes.

Bird on a Spade

This doodle was on smooth watercolour paper.

I think the smooth (300gms) is great for this type of sketching, when its more about a light touch, and detail.

We are in the middle of winter here in Australia, I’d love to be out in the garden, planting spring vegetables

Leibe Bird

Yet another adaptation from a Jo Sonja book. I think this was from the big book of decorative painting.

I painted this on one of those textured artist boards. It’s propped up on a plate stand in my daughter’s bedroom.

I love this combination of colours. After I painted the design, I glazed/shaded using retarder medium to give a bit more depth.

Peaceful Moments

brush sketch on watercolour paper - Jo Sonja design

Click on image for larger

This brush sketch is painted on watercolour paper in the same style as the previous post (girl vignette).

The design was from a Jo Sonja Jansen book (one of my favourite artists, she is so inspirational).

On the larger image (click the thumbnail), you can see that I actually wrote on there the colours I used, which were the same colours in the girl vignette.

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Girl & Bird Vignette

This quick sketch was done on watercolour paper with JoSonja artist gouache.

I sponged the background on using a couple of colours on top of each other. I think the main colour for the background was Smoked Pearl.

Use only small amounts of paint and you can get quite good drybrush type effects.

Keep it simple, let the strokes speak for themselves – no complicated shading or floating. Just vary the pressure of your strokes, adding more thin layers to give shape.

I also used a spattering (flyspecking) effect at the end. Water down the paint (do a test spatter first on scrap paper to test the amount) then use another brush, or similar implement to tap the brush with paint in it, releasing spatters over the painting.

Remember, less is more.

Pink Rose

Watercolours are a challenge.

Roses are a challenge.

So, why am I trying to combine the two in one go? Glutton for punishment I suppose.

Since I have the watercolour set sitting here (bought years ago in a moment of mad enthusiasm), I am prepared to take on the challenge. If you don’t hear from me for a while – you’ll know where I am.