Toucan Play at that Game

 

Well things are pretty freezing around here. A water pipe burst the other day and soaked into a carpet. Oh Joy! After soaking up the water with about a hundred towels I spent several hours trying to dry it out with a hairdryer to no avail. Now I keep the room at the temperature of a tropical rainforest in an attempt to dry it out. I'm as redfaced as a prune and living in a sauna. Save me!

So while we are bracing ourselves for another pelting of snow we should I suppose count ourselves lucky that we do not live in Boston which has been hit the worst.

Actually I don't really mind snow all that much. As far as I am concerned it just gives me carte blanche to loll around all day in my jammies watching terrible television like Dance Moms and stuffing my face with chocolate hob nobs. Nobody can really expect you to work if it involves driving if there is heavy snow so I like to take it easy on snow days although I do get a tad claustrophobic at some point and need to take a brisk walk outside in the slush.

Did you know that on the other side of the world it's  CARNAVAL in Brazil !!! Yes, sequins, platform heels and the biggest party in the world !! The nature art group I am part of had this as a theme. So I put on my party hat and put on some Samba music - and got out my watercolors and acrylic inks !!

I ended up with this lively bunch of two macaws and a toucan which I titled 'Toucan Play at that Game.' When I first started painting it the paint started dripping which I didn't mind so I kept adding lots of drips to create a pretty pattern.

I'm sure you'll agree these birds are pumped up and ready to PARTAY!

And now I am linking them up to Paint Party Friday so come join the fun.


birds art for sale

toucan art for sale

Little Yummy Hummingbird

I am part of an online Nature Painting Challenge Group. Each week we take inspiration from a photograph of an endangered species to create inspirational artwork to create awareness of the animals' plight.

This week's topic was the Saw-billed hermit (hummingbird, Ramphodon naevius) feeding on a large torch ginger (Etlingera elatior). This hummingbird is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil and the largest of its hummingbirds. But sadly, he is considered near threatened because of the status of the Atlantic Forest. This forest is under serious threat as 93% of it has been destroyed. The large cities along Brazil's coast, urban sprawl and agricultural interests are the main causes.

I had fun creating a loose work of art with alcohol inks on yupo paper. It was such fun as always!

I am linking up with Paint Party Friday so come on and join in the fun. The hummingbird painting is available as a print, cushion cover, mug etc at Redbubble. It is also available as a silk scarf from the Art of Where.

Happy Painting!

Baby Giraffe



Baby Giraffe, Watercolor, 18 x 24'

I have been inspired this past week to make my watercolors look more brilliant and lustrous on the paper, so I was excited to hear about a nifty little product called Gum Arabic. When I worked on this cute little baby giraffe and mixed some gum arabic with the paints, I did notice that the colors were brighter somehow.

Gum Arabic seems even more exciting though when used to controlling spread of paint in wet-on-wet, so that rather than getting a big muddy mess of colors pooling together I was able to separate them to some extent and just get some nice bits mixing at the edges of overlapping colors. Here is a flying parrot I created using gum arabic mixed with watercolor. It has a rather nice, loose abstract feel to it I think:

Parrot in Flight, watercolor, 18 x 24'

Have you ever used gum arabic with watercolors? Did you like the effect? There are all sorts of watercolor mediums I haven't tried yet but which seem rather exciting: Ox Gall, Aquapasto, Texture Medium, Granulation Medium etc. etc......I will try them all one day!

Linking up to Paint Party Friday and Creative Every Day! Click the buttons and come join in the fun....

giraffes art for sale

children paintings for sale