arches

World Water Day – Weaving through the River

/ Jodi / 39 Comments

Weaving through the River – 11×16 Mixed Media Art

World Water Day – Weaving through the River.

Today, March 22, is World Water Day.

World Water Day is about focusing attention on the importance of water.

The theme for World Water Day 2018 is ‘Nature for Water’ – exploring nature-based solutions to the water challenges we face in the 21st century.  It is about looking for ways we can reduce floods, droughts and water pollution by using the solutions we already find in nature.

Damaged ecosystems affect the quantity and quality of water available for human consumption.  Today, 21 billion people live without safe drinking water at home, affecting their health, education, and livelihoods.

The next time you brush your teeth and let the water run down the drain or fill a glass of water to drink and pour half of it down the drain or take a 20-minute shower, think about what a privilege it is to have a dependable source of fresh water and how many in this world do not.

Wherever you are and whatever you do today, make a point to consider nature and water.

And if you want to do something about it, consider visiting www.we.org where you can donate $25, which can provide one person with clean water for life.

This original mixed media art I created is being dedicated to World Water Day.  It was done using ink-dyed tissue paper and drops of ink on Arches 140lb watercolor paper.  I added torn pieces of some old sheet music for “Weary River” sealed down with gesso.  I purposely tore the title words to form the word “Weaver.”   It makes me think about how water and art and music weave through our lives and make an impact.

I’ve named this piece, “Weaving through the River.”

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Adele the Gazelle

/ Jodi / 41 Comments
Adele the Gazelle Watercolor 8x10 140lb Arches Cold Press

Adele the Gazelle Watercolor 8×10 140lb Arches Cold Press

Adele the Gazelle
was quite the bombshell.

She had the most magnificent smell,
it was almost as if she cast a magic spell.

Though most gazelles are not permitted to fly,  Adele was one you could not tell.
She simply believed it a myth she must and would dispel.

So after her jet flight and arrival at the airport in Nevel,
she proceeded directly to slide down the luggage carousel.

She bid her traveling friends farewell,
and headed northwest towards her hotel.

And when she rang the desk’s silver bell,
you should have seen the personnel!

But then they smelled Adele so swell,
as the stories go that they do tell,

And just like magic, they knew full well,
they, too, were under her incredible spell.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

This is one of a series of fun animal watercolor paintings and rhymes I am pursuing.
See the others:
A Rare Hare with Flare
A Duck Named Chuck
A Fawn at Dawn
Rooty the Rooster
A Precocious Pink Pig  
Hal the Colorful Cow
A Mouse named Klaus
Pam the Lamb
An Otterly Awesome Otter
Earl the Squirrel

#WorldWatercolorMonth

Mixing Basics in Watercolor: Blue, Red, & Yellow

/ Jodi / 55 Comments

 

Mixing Basics in Watercolor:  Blue – Red – Yellow.

Going back to basics with my new watercolor palette and realizing all the colors that can be created by using three simple basics.  For all three of these simple, loose, impressionistic flowers, I used the same colors:  Cobalt Blue, Permanent Rose, and Lemon Yellow.

For the first I mixed Permanent Rose with just a drop of Cobalt Blue for the flowers and Cobalt Blue and Lemon Yellow pretty equally for the green.

For the second I mixed Cobalt Blue with just a drop of Permanent Rose for the flowers and Cobalt Blue and Lemon Yellow with an emphasis on the Cobalt Blue in places nearer the flower.

For the third I mixed Lemon Yellow with just a drop of Permanent Rose for the flowers and Cobalt Blue and Lemon Yellow, but only a tiny bit of Cobalt Blue to lighten up the green.

And there are likely hundreds more color combinations in various shades that could be achieved by simply using these three basic colors.

It’s fun and easy and creates such clean, bright, un-muddied results when you keep it simple.

I also used one brush for everything – the Rekab 320S #2 Squirrel Mop (which I could only find by ordering from Australia, but LOVE it – also recommended by Debi Riley),  It is so versatile, but I really had to learn to use it after using inexpensive synthetic brushes at first.  This brush holds a lot of water and paint.  It also can come to a fine point and do small lines with a light touch, and can make fat, wash strokes too.

So if you are even thinking of giving watercolor painting a try…. three colors, one brush (you don’t have to order from Australia – but find a nice natural hair medium sized brush to achieve results you will really enjoy) and some paper (I recommend you start with Cold Press 140lb Arches) is really all you need to create some beauty and experiment with this wonderful hobby.

Thanks to the inspiration of Debi Riley on Watercolor Basics!  So much to learn from such talent!

Enjoy the journey!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Purple Irises in Watercolor

/ Jodi / 72 Comments
purple-iris-2-black-border-matted

Single Purple Iris Watercolor Loose 8 x 10

Purple Irises in Watercolor.

Continuing on my kick of violet and crimson and gold…
and thinking floral…
and thinking Spring… (it continues to be in the 60’s and sunny here this crazy February of Spring in Western Pennsylvania!)

I created a couple iris paintings.

They are both very different, but I kinda love them both.

I painted these on Sunday after dinner on what was such a beautiful sunny, warm day.

I have to admit I gave purple irises a try on Saturday (in the midst of “construction” work on another project in the house).

I painted four or five different versions.  They were all terrible!

I hate days like that.  It makes me feel like I’ve “lost it.”   Not to say I’m anything magnificent in the whole big world of amazing watercolor artists.  But I’ve finally come to a place where I feel like I have some bit of my own style and can often appreciate the beauty in some of my work.

When I did this first one, I was so pleased.  I felt like I finally achieved what I was going for.

I thought I’d try another version, and I like it too.   In fact, I can’t decide between the two.  I wish the photos better represented what they look like – or maybe it ‘s just me, but they look so much better in real life.

purple-iris-1-black-border-matted

Single Violet Iris Loose Watercolor 8 x 10

Wishing you a day filled with simple little victories and moments to feel good about yourself!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Watercolor Impressions & Expressions of Friendship in Violet & Crimson & Gold

/ Jodi / 58 Comments
violet-and-gold-muted-abstract-watercolor

Violet & Gold Muted Abstract Watercolor 8 x 10

Watercolor Impressions & Expressions of Friendship in Violet & Crimson & Gold.

I had fun splashing in watercolor a few evenings this week after Couples Camp last weekend when my sweet Bubby told me she wanted my Illusion watercolor painting, but she also wanted a couple more paintings to complement it for a grouping in her dining room.

violet-floral-illusion-watercolor

Violet Floral Illusion Watercolor 8×10

Bubby is not really a floral girl (so she says), but she also has my Very Variegated Violet painting hanging in her home.  😉

violet-crimson-gold-abstract-drips-watercolor

Violet Crimson Gold Abstract Drips Watercolor 8×10

She is obviously a “purple girl!”  She also loves more abstract art.

violet-crimson-gold-abstract-flower-watercolor

Violet Crimson Gold Abstract Pinwheel Flower Watercolor 8×10

So these are some choices I’ve presented to her to choose from – or not…  Either way, I had fun expressing my love of her through impressions in art.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Daniel Smith Quinacridone Purple, Quinacridone Violet, Opera Rose, Quinacridone Gold, Arches 140 lb Cold Press Watercolor Paper

Feel free to check out more at McKinneyX2Designs

Illusion

/ Jodi / 56 Comments
purple anemone illusion watercolor on 9x12 140lb arches

purple anemone illusion watercolor on 9×12 140lb arches

Illusion.

Sometimes
creating an illusion

of what it should be,
or could be,
or would be….

is more beautiful,
and more interesting,
and more mysterious…

than the reality
of what it really is.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Practicing from and inspired by Jean Haine’s Atmospheric Watercolour Book

Seeing Red

/ Jodi / 52 Comments
red-abstract-floral-watercolor-11x14-with-white-frame

red-abstract-floral-watercolor-11×14-140lb arches

Seeing Red…

Not in the usual way we think of “seeing red,”
but in a happy, loose, free, floral kinda way!

What color are you “seeing” today?

Hope it is a happy one.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Watercolors:  Daniel Smith Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Hansa Yellow Medium, Perylene Violet, Sepia

Paper:  Arches 140lb Cold Press

McKinneyX2Designs

 

Big Magic & Intracranial Jewelry-Making

/ Jodi / 79 Comments
abstract pink floral watercolor 10 x 14 Arches 300 lb cold press

abstract pink floral watercolor 10 x 14 Arches 300 lb cold press

I have been so inspired lately by a book I am listening to on Audible during those precious 30 minutes a day I spend on the elliptical or treadmill early in the morning at the gym.  Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) was recommended to me by Dawn, a blogging friend who shares her own beautiful creativity at Petals. Paper, Simple Thymes.  I am so glad I took her advice and got it!  And it is such a joy to listen to it read by author Elizabeth herself with all the passion and inflection she adds throughout.

I want to share an excerpt with you that hit a chord with me the other morning (and there are many of these!)  During this excerpt, Gilbert is sharing about a time she interviewed musician Tom Waits for GQ Magazine.  I loved everything he had to say to her and she wrote about him, but I want to share this little piece in particular:

“Over the years, Tom Waits finally found his sense of permission to deal with his creativity more lightly – without so much drama – without so much fear.  A lot of this lightness, Waits said, came from watching his children grow up and seeing their total freedom of creative expression.  He noticed that his children felt fully entitled to make up songs all the time, and when they were done with them, they would toss them out ‘like little origami things, or paper airplanes.’  Then they would sing the next song that came through the channel.  They never seemed to worry that the flow of ideas would dry up.   They never stressed about their creativity, and they never competed against themselves; they merely lived within their inspiration, comfortable and unquestioning.

Waits had once been the opposite of that as a creator.  He told me that he’d struggled deeply with his creativity in his youth because – like many serious young men – he wanted his work to be better than other people’s work.  He wanted to be complex and intense.  There was anguish, there was torment, there was drinking, there were dark nights of the soul.  He was lost in the cult of artistic suffering, but he called that suffering by another name: dedication.

But through watching his children create so freely, Waits had an epiphany: it wasn’t actually that big a deal.  He told me, ‘I realized as a songwriter, the only thing I really do is make jewelry for the inside of other people’s minds.’  Music is nothing more than decoration for the imagination.  That’s all it is.  That realization, Waits said, seemed to open things up for him.  Songwriting became less painful after that.

Intracranial jewelry-making!  What a cool job!”

Does that strike you like it does me?  So with this newfound creative freedom floating through my cranium, I splashed some paint around this weekend that resulted in this.  Here is some of my “intracranial jewelry” to share.

abstract pink floral watercolor 10 x 14 Arches 300 lb cold press matted and framed

abstract pink floral watercolor 10 x 14 Arches 300 lb cold press matted and framed to 19 x 23

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Sunny Sunflower

/ Jodi / 91 Comments

sunflower2

I found some time to splash in puddles this long holiday weekend….  Puddles of paint that is, because the sun was a shinin’ most of the weekend!

I watched a video on painting sunflowers done by Joanne Thomas, who is a queen of loose splashy watercolor.  I’ve really admired her style ever since I started watercolor painting about a year ago, so I decided to give her sunflower a try.

I painted it on a 10 x 14 sheet of Arches 300 lb cold press.  I put it in a matted frame to see what it would look like.  Such a difference it makes when you mat and frame a painting – eh?

Sunny Sunflower Original Watercolor 10 x 14 Arches 300 lb Cold Press

Sunny sunflowers is going in our McKinneyx2Designs Etsy Shop – the original painting, prints and greeting cards.

Sunny Sunflower All

Fluttering my “artist” wings, and enjoying the sunny, sunshiny summertime weather!

Sunny Sunflower Greeting Card Set

Happy Tuesday and short work week for many of us.

Cherish the moments.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi