Travels & Watercoloring

My friend Cyndie and I were supposed to be taking an art class together in March near her home, but the instructor canceled it at the last moment, so I had to make a quick decision about the plane ticket I no longer needed.  We decided to re-route our adventure to San Diego in August.

We had an absolutely lovely time and you can see tons of photos on my Instagram Account.

We at lots of delicious food including these orange pancakes at Flap Your Jacks.

 

 

We went to so many museums and saw so much inspiring art.

 

 

And we even took a safari at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

 

 

And we decided since we couldn't take an art class in person together, we'd both join Laura Horn's Painted Horizons Class and make art together virtually.

So Friday night, I swatched my watercolors and make my first attempt at lesson one – Textured Landscapes.  In addition to my watercolors, I used all sorts of mixed media products to add texture and visual interest.  It was so fun to revisit a lot of these products in my studio.

 

 

I tried to use similar color palettes to the instructor for my first attempt, but I think I'll try it again with different paints.  For these landscapes I used Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors that I had never opened.

First I did a landscape in blues, teals & neutrals.

 

 

Next up were pinks, yellow and neutrals.

 

 

After the panels dried, the mixed media and mark making began (although you can see above in both panels where I used a skewer to scratch into the wet watercolor paint).

 

 

It was fun trying lots of different products on top of the paint.

 

 

Since I failed to get a tight paint seal on the second one, I trimmed off the edges and mounted it on a white card base to get the framed look.

 

 

I was going to just add a sentiment, but that little painted Tim Holtz paper doll was staring-up at me from my studio table, so I decided she needed to call the landscape home.  She looks right at home I believe.

I added a sticker sentiment and got that card into the mail.

 

 

I used the other watercolored textured landscape for my Hero Arts Stay Crafty Splish Splash Challenge card #staycraftychallenge.  I die cut it with the the largest Hero Arts Nesting Hexagon Infinity Die.  

I stamped the image from Hero Arts Where to Next? on watercolor paper and colored portions with alcohol ink markers and positioned it in the center of the watercolored landscape using foam tape.

 

 

I finished with a sentiment from the same Hero Arts stamp set.