Watercolor painting - Court Square Tulips

This is watercolor on aquaboard. It took many, many layers to get the depth of color I wanted. Anyway, I don't usually paint flowers but I will be part of a show in a building on our Court Square next week. Each year the square is planted with beautiful tulips. So, I decided to paint a few of these for the upcoming show.

Photography Labrador Retriever

What a handsome boy! This is another lab out of Wildrose Kennels in Oxford, MS. These are a few photos I took for a commission watercolor. I just love the colors in the backgrounds especially in the top photo and it doesn't hurt to have such a lovely subject! I can paint a portrait from any photo (non-flash) or if you are close enough I take the photos and give them to you! If you are interested in a commission of your pet, please just comment below and it will come to my email inbox.

Sweet Potato Farming - Acrylic on Panel - Painting

Still playing with the new paints... acrylics. This was about a mile up the road from my place. They were harvesting a sweet potato crop.

Dog Painting - Acrylic - Labrador Retriever

Again, trying something new. This is an acrylic on unprimed canvas. It was a little more difficult than I thought as I had never seriously painted with acrylics. Also, I usually have such colorful subjects that I leave the backgrounds very plain. Here, I toned down the color a little in the dogs face and put some color in the background. I liked the way these acrylics (Golden Open) handled but did take some getting used to. I also used brushes (I only had 2) instead of painting knives.

Watercolor painting horse MAGGIE

Maggie, again. What an intelligent expression. She is actually a liver chestnut Thoroughbred and a pleasure to be around. She is one of my rescues that decided that this would be a great forever home. I had painted this in a much smaller version (below) to work out some of the expanded range of color that I am attempting. This one is quite large on a fairly smooth surface (new product of watercolor paper laminated to a lightweight board). I bounce between watercolors and oils. I find that I really like the movement of the paint and the water on the surface that you don't get with oils. The water allows some really nice unexpected results. The hard part is to learn to just leave it alone.

Billy is a Bad Bad Doggie

The title says it all. Billy is a LabraPit or Pitador (not sure which... neither is he). He became very sneaky when he realized that my bed was far better than his. He knew he was treading on thin ice but I guess he felt it was worth the risk. (I tried something new and painted this on a different brand of paper and learned that each brand accepts the paint and water very differently).

Watercolor painting horse MOSE

This is Mose. He's everyone's favorite. He is larger than any of my other horses and seems to know it. He does just kinda mosey around (which is what he is doing here) and at his own pace. Webster says that mosey means to move in a leisurely or aimless manner. I'm surprised that his pic wasn't next to the definition.

Dog Watercolor Painting American Pit Bull Terrier YOGI

There are some subjects that I am drawn to paint. This is Yogi and he is one of my favorite subjects. His face seems to tell his frightening story and I have painted it many times. I have never been disappointed. This particular one did not reproduce well here. The colors are much more striking and a bit warmer in the original.