What I love about watercolor is the very thing that drives some people nuts: the difficulty of controlling it once wet paint touches wet paper. It’s much easier to control in the areas where the paper was dry. Often paintings are a combination of both. See if you can pick out the parts of this painting where wet paint touched wet paper, and the parts where dry paper left clean edges.
In Cleveland before my Oberlin College Reunion this weekend, a bunch of us went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was really fun. A comprehensive look at the roots and branches of rock, lots of great music and videos, not to mention costumes, guitars and gift shop souvenirs. Here’s what it looks from the front, with 3-D letters that kids had fun climbing on. Worth a visit!
I am on my way to my college reunion at Oberlin College in Ohio. A number of us spent a couple of days at a pre-reunion in nearby Cleveland. Yesterday some of us visited the Botanical Gardens, which are wonderful. I did this sketch (which gave me a workout on creating different shades of green) while sitting in the cloudforest greenhouse. Every afternoon they release more butterflies into the greenhouse. How many butterflies can you count in this sketch?
Aren’t cafes the best? A place to buy some coffee and a croissant and sit down with your laptop and relax. Here’s a sketch I did at one of my favorite cafes. Since this customer wasn’t going to pose for me, I snapped a photo of her and did the sketch from my photo. There’s no need for people to be more than simple shapes.
I read this quote recently and thought it might make a nice small painting.
Hope you had a wonderful day yesterday!
Here are some flowers in a minimalist style.
I love the poem below so I superimposed it on a painting.
I am sending you a painting every Monday and Friday, and sometimes Wednesday, at 5 p.m. I post it earlier on my blog at www.lynnholbein.com, which is a rolling blog starting with the recent postings and going back 1 1/2 years. At 5:00 on M, W and F, WordPress automatically checks my blog and sees if there is anything new, and if so, it’s converted to an email and sent to you. The magic of technology!
The dogwood trees are so beautiful at this time of year. I tried to paint this in a somewhat Asian style, and took liberties with the pinks and blues.
Yesterday was the Walk for Hunger, and it was lovely to walk along the Charles River and see the trees budding and hear the migrating birds singing. Thanks to everyone who enabled me to surpass my $5,000 goal! You have been so generous to me during my 38 years of walking. If you haven’t had a chance and would like to donate online, for my personal Walk page click here. I’ll mail you this year’s sketch, which I posted two weeks ago; here’s my “thank you sketch” from last year.
The food pantries and soup kitchens funded by the Walk are likely to come under increased stress in coming years. The House version of the Farm Bill now before Congress would tighten restrictions to qualify for food stamps. If passed, this would mean millions more adults and children could go hungry.
The few days when the leaves are unfurling are some of the more magical of the year. Right now, belatedly and all at once, that is happening in New England.
Most years I notice this process half-distractedly as I go about my day, and then suddenly the leaves are fully out, and I regret missing something. Sketching can be a sort of mindfulness meditation, so yesterday I decided to really focus. I clipped five different branches and brought them inside to draw and paint. Here’s the result.
