Seven years of paintings

 In April of 2015, when I went to my first sip and paint class, little did I know where I would be years later. Those first couple of years were definitely experimental, and it kept me progressing in my style. Lately I've been feeling that I'm stagnant in my progress perhaps because I lost that sense of enjoying the journey rather than making a finished piece.

Below is a set of lotus flowers I did in 2016 in gouache. I had these hanging somewhere in my home, but took them down once I felt these were my more basic works.

Now, nearly seven years later, I found them again and thought it would be fun to spruce them up, add my style I have currently progressed to. The re-do used acrylic this time, with a gouache background.

It will be interesting to see where the next seven years take me on this journey of discovering my creative side.

The Honeybee

 One of those quick sketches in watercolor that turned out exceptional. 4x6 on hot pressed 100% cotton paper.

Teal sweater in wool and alpaca fibers

 Teal is my favorite color, so I needed to knit a sweater in that color. This is a very simple design by Cleome Smith which I really appreciate! So many garments have intricate patterns which are pretty, but my style is quite simple. The yarn is by Drops Yarn and is a fingering size, so this sweater took me about 2 months to complete. I'm very happy with it, and plan to knit another with the same yarn in a gray.

Pisces in gouache

 I had a dry spell with my painting urges there for awhile, but today it found me. I have had the idea of painting Koi windsocks for some time now, and found inspiration with blue and coral colors. This one is painted on a 6x6 canvas board in gouache.

King size quilt in purple and sky blue

 When the pandemic hit and we all realized we wouldn't be going anywhere for awhile, I decided to start a new quilt. But not just one that was a lap size like so many I have made. The largest I had made up to this point was a double wedding ring quilt that I hand quilted.

This quilt was going to be King size because my husband and I wanted to upgrade from a Queen to a King size bed. I found a geometric pattern, and began to look at colors. The pattern only required 2 for the top, but there was also the border and backing to consider. 

There is a local quilt shop very close to my house that I just love. While there are many beautiful printed fabrics, I really only go there for the Kona solids and unique Batik fabrics. 

Sharon's Attic & Quilt Shop

With so many people opting to sew their own face masks, and supply chains being fouled up, I had to special order this fabric and wait about a month before I could buy it. 

Sewing the top took me nearly a year to finish, and the hand-quilting took me even longer. I did not work on it consistently however, so had I been doing that, I could have been done with this in 6 months. I used a contrasting violet for the border, and picked out a gorgeous batik that brings out all the colors plus a few more. Very pleased with the backing!

It's hard to see, but I did mess up cutting some of the squares, so the pattern does not line up as I like. The quilting is more sparse than most hand-quilted projects because it is just so huge I would be quilting it still in five years! 

Regardless of it not being 100% the way I had hoped, it did turn out stunning and is now placed on our beautiful new King bed.

Amarok the wolf

 My husband loves wolves, and he always calls our family with our two dogs the 'wolf pack'. He has wolf T-shirts and even drinks his daily coffee from a wolf mug. When I found the Colorado Wolf & Wildlife Center in Central Colorado, he became very intrigued for a possible future visit. Meanwhile, I scoured this website to look at the pack and fell in love with Amarok. The vision of painting him wouldn't escape me, so here he is below. Watercolor on paper.

Spix's Macaw

 I stumbled upon a photo of this small macaw online, and found them to be such beautiful birds with their blue feathers. While I've not seen this movie, they are featured in the movie Rio. Their home was in Brazil, but with deforestation, they are extinct in the wild. Fortunately, conservation groups such as ACTP are working to reintroduce them to their native rainforests.

This watercolor painting took me a couple of months as I had lost my creative urge for several weeks. Once it came back, I worked through it quickly and with great joy. This was challenging beause of the detailed texture of the feathers. And instead of a detailed background, I went with an abstract green watercolor with alcohol droplets to simulate greenery. Very pleased how this turned out.