Not a daily painting blog.

It's a good thing I didn't name my blog anything that resembled: Bonnie Heather's daily paintings.  Having a blog has definitely encouraged me to paint more but I still paint less than many of my new blogging friends.  We listed our condo for sale today and I had to pack up all my supplies so the realtor could take pictures that made the place look nice and tidy.  My studio is our diningroom and I'm not tidy.

Now that everything is put away it will probably be a day or two before I get back to painting.  I'll still be visiting all my favourite sites and I'm busy working on a special project that I'll reveal soon.  In the meantime I'll enclose a picture of the view from our condo, just in case someone out there is thinking of buying in the beautiful Okanagan Valley.

2 bedroom Condo

Kelowna BC Canada

$199,800

Water colour is not like riding a bicycle.

The warmer weather had me thinking: water colour.  So a couple of days ago, I went to the local park and sketched the view from the top of Knox Mountain.  My drawing turned out great and I looked forward to posting it BUT first I wanted to add some water colour to set it off and show some of the beautiful blues of the lake and sky. Did you notice there isn't a picture with todays post? That's because the water colour wash I tried, turned out awful.  What a mess. Yuk.

Unlike Myra who painted a pretty water colour picture that turned out wonderfully, mine was beyond bad. Ok, did I learn anything from this experience?  Hmmm, how about practice makes perfect... That was the first water colour I'd tried in over a year.  It is not like riding a bicycle.

I did however have a terrific day off, out in the sunshine, and had a fun day with family.

Another portrait.

I tried painting my husband's portrait.  It's not quite him yet, but I'm going to leave it for a few days and see  if I can figure it out.  I often have to live with a painting awhile before I get it right, especially portraits.

A Floppy Poppy ACEO

"Being Open"

ACEO 2.5"x3.5"

Oil on 140lb. water colour paper with an acrylic border

For sale on ebay auction.

SOLD

I decided to try again with the ACEO.  I learned my lesson and tried something less detailed.  Just for fun I put a gold border around this floppy poppy to set it off a little more.  It was great fun going back to it several times today just to add a few more strokes while I did my house cleaning.

I can hardly wait for the spring flowers to start blooming around here so I can get some more reference material.  I haven't painted flowers in a while and I miss them.  Maybe I'll go blogging and see how many others have painted flowers lately.  Let me know if you have one posted and I'll come visit.

Art Trading Card or ATC

I've been wanting to do ACEO's and Art Trading Cards (ATC's) for a while now.  I also have a painting I want to paint large.  Soooo, I had this light bulb moment where it seemed like a good idea to paint the scene on an art card, 2.5"x3.5", then on a small board for practice and then on a big canvas.  This may end up being a good idea as far as getting the painting organized but my chosen scene was way to complicated for this small format. The water colour paper made it hard to paint tiny detail as well.  Lesson learned.  My next card will have less in it.  I decided to post it anyway just to let you fellow bloggers know that I have been doing something in the last couple days.

Using oil like water colour.

I didn't realize the challenges I'd have when I started this portrait.  The oil was fun to use but having only one colour meant using washes to create depth.  It also meant no covering up a dark area that should be light.  I did find I could go in with a cotton swab and lighten some areas but I couldn't alter any place that included the background.

My son says he's not that heavy but this picture was taken several years ago... besides, after all the years that I heard the tune for the A&W root bear being hummed by my two, then, teenage sons... call it my revenge.

"Nathan"

5"x7" 

oil on board