watercolors

Creativity workshop

~ MaryG ~ 15 Comments

I’m participating in a two-hour creativity workshop on Zoom today. The focus is on “exploring our art making process,” not learning particular techniques. It’s described “as a time to feed our souls and learn with and from each other.”

To prepare I need to:

Find a piece of clothing or textile with an interesting pattern or texture and bring it to my artmaking space. Assemble a bunch of different drawing tools such as any drawing paper of any size, pen, markers, pastels, colored pencils, watercolor, charcoal…

OK, I’m good on drawing supplies, but a bit stumped on the textile. Maybe I’ll bring my favorite skirt. It’s reversible so it has two cool fabrics to choose from.

I’ve gotten lazy painting things that I didn’t draw myself, so I experimented with a Calla Lily yesterday.

Drawing is hard and can be tedious, but the only way you get better is to practice. Painting is the fun part, in my opinion.

I was mainly trying to draw/paint the flower. The scene behind was me not wanting to waste the paint and paper.

Update:

In the creativity “playshop” (rather than “workshop,” get it?) we looked at a section of our textile, and experimented with it in some way.

I experimented with changing the colors and layering the colors. The shapes were giving me sea creature vibes.

My textile:

Watercolors—baby farm animal #1

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments

I started my 5-week class at a very nearby community arts center yesterday. I don’t like the set-up as much as the fancier arts center where I took my first watercolors class in the fall. The room is nice and sunny, but it’s quite crowded and no sinks. You have to use the restroom in the hall to get water and rinse your brushes.

The people seem nice. It’s a similar vibe to my first class. Lots of retired people who re-register each semester because they like the teacher and have gotten to know one another.

The difference is that we all paint the same subject each week, with the teacher giving a demo for each step. It’s not exactly a recipe for developing one’s own unique creative voice, but I’m sure I’ll learn some stuff by painting along with a pro.

It’s surprisingly hard to make a chick’s face look “not mean.” I think the spotted Easter eggs help a bit.

Blizzard painting

~ MaryG ~ 8 Comments

We’re in a blizzard here in Massachusetts. Fortunately the power is still on, but we ain’t going anywhere for a looooong time.

Settling in.

I decided to try painting another portrait (my own) based on a photograph.

Here’s the inspo pic from last fall:

Here my painting:

Portraits are hard! This makes me want to take another class with my teacher from last fall. She was good at portraits, but alas, I have registered for a different (cheaper) class, closer to home, where we will focus on “cute baby farm animals.”

ChatGPT gave me some solid feedback on the portrait though:

Lightly mapping planes (forehead plane, side planes of nose, cheek planes) before committing to color would increase dimensional accuracy.

The biggest difference between the painting and photo is contrast and value structure.

The photo has stronger: Shadow under the brow ridge Shadow on the right side of the face (viewer’s right) Cast shadow under the nose Subtle shadow under the lower lip

In the painting:

Midtones dominate. Shadows aren’t quite dark enough, especially around the eyes and under the cheekbones. This reduces form and depth.

Fix: Push darks 15–20% deeper in:

Eye sockets Side of nose Under cheekbone (viewer’s right side) Neck shadow under chin

That alone would dramatically increase realism.

Biggest Growth Area:

Value structure and form modeling

If you deepen shadows and increase plane awareness, this would jump from a good portrait to a very strong one.

OK, I can take that criticism (nicer than some human art teachers I’ve known) and I agree with it.

Related post:

ChatGPT as Art Teacher

Watercolors—botanicals 10

~ MaryG ~ 18 Comments

These are the last few pages in my botanicals “Watercolor Workbook” by Sarah Simon, a very thoughtful Christmas gift from my daughter.

It was great because it kept me painting through January and February in this very cold and snowy Winter of the Knee, where we’ve mostly just stayed home. (Part 2 of The Year of the Knee—aka “The Other Knee”—is now scheduled for March 16. 🙄)

I enjoyed inking the pre-printed designs with my new artists pens and learned a few good techniques for painting flowers and foliage. Also, I got a lot of useful color mixing information. Each page preserves my color recipes, which will be convenient for future reference.

Finally, hurray for flowers and plants! I’m bad at growing them, but they’re fun to draw, paint. and photograph.

🌺🌿🌷🌻🌼🪴🌱🌸

“Lady Lily” and her little cat 🐈‍⬛
Cosmos and Magnolias
This design is called “Plant Lady Besties” 😊
February flowers from BloomsyBox.com
Did you notice that iPhone has hidden “portrait mode” in a new place? I had to Google where to find it.

Watercolors—botanicals 9

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments

Almost done with my Watercolor Workbook by Sarah Simon.

“Lady Monstera” and her little dog 🐶
Berries and Cyprus

I painted the center flower as one big wet boundary, but I think it might’ve looked cooler if painted each petal separately. Would’ve taken longer though!

Watercolors—botanicals 8

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments
Garden bouquet. I was trying to paint in the “loose boundaries” style here, but then my husband said the middle flower looked boring so I put some table salt in a few areas.
Another anonymous woman from the workbook. She is called “Lady Wisteria.“
“Lady Banana Plant” is very shy indeed!

Designs from Watercolor Workbook by Sarah Simon (IG: @themintgardener)

Watercolors—botanicals 7

~ MaryG ~ 18 Comments
This headless design is called Lady Sweet Pea in my workbook.
Poppies
Blueberry branch. I think this is my favorite page in the workbook so far. I really like how the blueberries came out.

Designs from Watercolor Workbook by Sarah Simon (IG: @themintgardener)

Today is my husband’s 64th birthday, which is significant to GenX and older because he’s officially reached the Beatles definition of old age:

“Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I’m sixty four?”

Also, I hear there’s football a game going on during a Bad Bunny concert tonight. 😉

Go Pats!

Winter 2026

~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments

This is the first winter in forever that I’m not going to Florida for at least a week. I’m staying here in the cold with my husband—and his new knee—for the entire winter. And it sure is a cold and snowy one. We have a huge snow bank in our driveway and major icicles hanging off our roof. I’m worried about ice dams causing leaking into the house (so far, so good).

There’s a garden under that huge pile of snow. The plow guy has no other place to put the snow. I hope at least some of the plants survive.

On the bright side: I get to see my granddaughter today 😁 Also, the Patriots are in the Super Bowl, which is a big plus if you’re married to a huge Pats fan. The Super Bowl is on his birthday too. Also, my church is hosting an Emma’s Revolution concert Friday to benefit a local immigrant and refugee justice organization. It’s going to be fun.

Yesterday, I watched some of the congressional testimony from people whose lives have been ruined by ICE, including Renee Good’s two heartbroken brothers. Not a single Republican congressperson attended the hearing. I watched Aliyah Rachman—a woman with a traumatic brain injury—testify to the most horrific capture and treatment by ICE that you could possibly imagine. The conditions in the detention centers are subhuman, with living human beings referred to as “bodies.” Watch her testimony here.

My husband has signed on to get his other knee replaced in mid-March, so that’s going to….in a word…suck.

But back to the bright side: we moved an old treadmill from the unfinished side of the basement to the “nice” side of the basement and it still works fine. So I can “take a walk” even when the weather prevents me from going outside. I’m currently rewatching the entire original Sex and the City series while I’m treadmilling. I’m on Season 3.

I’m getting closer to the end of my watercolor botanicals workbook and I decided I’d like to keep learning in a class with a teacher. Last night I found a class at a different community arts center (even closer to my house than where I took my first watercolors class last fall). There was just one opening left, so I registered. I had hesitated to register earlier, because the class focuses on learning to paint one particular subject, which sounded kind of silly. But last night as I watched All Creatures Great and Small on PBS, I decided that painting “soft, cute and fluffy baby farm animals” might be just what I need in the Winter of 2026.

Peony and wildflowers from my Watercolors Workbook