A small line and wash watercolor of wild flowers in a yellow glass bottle.

Three Small Line & Wash Watercolors

In the spring, there are plenty of flowers to paint.  This is a line & wash.  First you draw with ink and then just lay a wash over the line leaving any white for light.  

A small postcard size line and wash watercolor with a few wildflowers. An orange poppy in the foreground with a crimson flower on the right top corner and small violet flowers on the bottom right. Blue background

Wildflowers in Yellow Bottle with blue curtain 2016

A small line and wash watercolor of wild flowers in a yellow glass bottle.

Wildflowers in Yellow Bottle 2016

A small line and wash watercolor of wild flowers from a top view. It's a bit abstract. You can see a pink petal flower and part of a California poppy as well as the color blue and purple of other flowers.

Wildflowers in Yellow Bottle Top View 2016

These are very quick watercolors that I don’t have any more.  I send them as postcards.

A small watercolor of spanish poppies with little purple wildflowers and daisies.

Spanish Wildflowers Watercolor

Spanish Wild flowers

A small watercolor of spanish poppies with little purple wildflowers and daisies.
Poppies and Wild Flowers May 2015 Watercolor on Arches 300 gsm – Painted Area 6.4×4.7 in – 12×16.5 cm Matted on 8×10 inch ivory colored museum board – €65 Euros)

I like to paint Spanish wild flowers in watercolor because they are colorful, lively and fun to paint.  

Happy Spring

A small watercolor of California Wildflowers Yellow orange, blue, violet and pink small flowers

California Wild Flowers

California Wild Flowers 2014

A small watercolor of California Wildflowers Yellow orange, blue, violet and pink small flowers

California Wild Flowers 2014 Watercolor on Arches 300 gsm 16.5×12 cm “6.4×4.7”

The last time I was in California, I got a sack of wild flower seeds and planted them on my terrace.  It took a couple of months and these dainty little yellow, blue, pink, violet and white flowers all started blooming at once. I like to paint them.  

The Retiro Rose Garden, la Rosalera.

The Dolphine Fountain
The Dolphin Fountain at the Retiro Park in Madrid.
I just started this painting last weekend.  I’m still working on it.  I take photos of the process of painting to have a look at later…
The Dolphine Fountain

The same fountain as above around five hours later.

I only paint with natural light.  On Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I turn off all devises, disconnect for the weekend and paint all day.

La Rosalera del Buen Retiro 2017

Madrid, is where I always wanted to paint, especially in the June light.  This fountain below, Fuente del Faunito, is one of my fountain favorites for painting.
The Retiro Rose Garden 2017
La Rosalera del Buen Retiro 2017 – Egg tempera on stretched linen canvas – 33 x 41 cm 

I started this painting last week. It belongs to a new series of Madrilenian cityscapes I’ve been putting together.

The technique is egg tempera on stretched linen canvas 33 x 41 cm

 

 

Summer June Flowers 2017

After our funny hail storm in June, these little yellow sun flowers bloomed on the terrace all at once.

Painting outdoors

I took out my easel and oil paints onto the terrace and started to paint the mini sun flowers early morning.

My Colors

I mix my own colors with natural pigment bound with linseed oil.  The colors are: cadmium lemon yellow, yellow chrome, transparent gold ochre, cadmium orange, magnesium blue, intense crimson, tierra sombra and cadmium red.

Sunny June Flowers in Process

I usually start with my favorite part and build around it.

I just try to paint what I see.

7Getting Hot Out Here.jpg

I put the exact color and shape on the canvas as quickly and accurately as possible.

The Following Morning

Here again the next morning in the hot sun.

Sunny June Flowers 2017

Here I started putting in the skyline.

Sunny June Flowers 2017

Since all the colors influence each other, I try to find all them as quickly as possible before the light changes.

Sunny June Flowers 2017

The background colors are established, so now I start with more detail in the foreground.

Sunny June Flowers 2017

I felt as if I had finished the painting at this point and then I couldn’t resist putting a scumble on it to push the back ground into the distance.

 

 

Egg Tempera Scumble over Oils

So little by little I started building up the foreground, leaving the back ground alone.

 

Sunny June Flowers 2017

Summer June Flowers 2017.

 

Open Air Painting of The Lds Temple in June 2017 Madrid, Spain

 

This is the largest plein air watercolor I have done so far.   It was quite an adventure.

First Day

The fountain was dry when I got there.  I asked the gardener if it would have water soon.

The gardener told me that they were cleaning  it but that he would turn it on the following morning so I could paint it with water.

Fuente del Jardin de las Novias

  The next morning the fountain had its beautiful cascade!

In process

There was a heat wave in Madrid and the sky turned a dark, almost purple color that I didn’t want to paint.  I was waiting for the sky to turn light blue again.

Just finished

 

Finally the sky was blue like the first day and once I got everything in place, I stopped painting.

 

My friends with Painting 2017

Painting the Lds Temple was a really nice experience. I made two new friends A and J.  They told me a lot of interesting things about the Temple and gave me a beautiful book related to the Temple.

There’s nothing like painting in Madrid