My paintings of Birds

As a kid I always wished I had wings.  Then I could fly away to get some air whenever I wanted too.  I could get places quickly without having to ask somebody to give me a ride.  Most important of all, I could live in trees!  I did spend a lot of my childhood summers on top of trees anyways.  I ate there, I wrote poems there, I even did some homework there, such a lot of fun it was.

So birds, I'm in tune with.  As a tribute to their free soul here are some of my birds:

The four below, Mr. and Mrs. Crane, the Heron, the Sparrow, and the Chicken with Attitude are done in Chinese brush painting on rice paper.

The Swan on the right was masked first and then
poured over with paint on regular watercolor paper.

The Rooster on the left was painted in gouache on yupo.  He's standing on a heap of some textured rice paper.  That way he can proudly wake people up early in the morning.  I called this painting 'Cause I Said So.

My Green Jay and Macaws were painted in oils.

The Fruits in our garden

The first thing I planted in our garden was a pair of Pomegranate trees.  Oranges, Limes, Grapes, Loquats and Tangerines followed.  So on a fine day with the right light, there's nothing more fun than painting your own garden fruits.  The cherries were store bought, I must admit.

I painted the oranges and the pomegranates in oils, the loquats in Chinese brush, the cherries in gouache and the basket of fruits in acrylics.

Series

The theme for this series of four equal size paintings was "flowers that I grew in our garden."
From top left, Angel's Trumpets, Plumerias, Lantana, and Bird of Paradise.

The banana diptych grows over the fence. 

The two mini series above are Chinese paintings on western watercolor paper.

Watercolors, Experimental

Exploring different papers and different techniques is a must to a developing artist in my opinion.
All I need is some kind of paper and some kind of color to paint.  I've even painted on coffee filters in hotels, of course nowadays they don't use them that much any more.

The carnations below were masked for the white areas first and then poured over the thick paint, saving particular areas for the flowers.  Some of the petals are filled in last.

The lilies above are painted on watercolor board.

"The Grapes" is mixed media.  I painted the central area on rice paper like I do when Chinese brush painting, and then pasted the painting onto a canvas and painted around it using acrylic paints.  I can say that I invented this technique years ago to save myself from having to frame my Chinese brush painting under glass.  The disadvantage of glass is that it reflects the light.  OK, we can solve that problem by investing some money on non-glare glass.  It's also fragile and heavy of course.  OK, we can use plexiglass, but still have to deal with the glare.  Nowadays they make non-reflective plexiglass, so whatever works.

Flowers in oils

Working in oils has its pros and cons, of course.  It feels wonderful under the brush but I always have to wait for a nice, cool and dry day to do oils to get the fumes out.  Not an easy task when you live in a hot and humid climate.

Let's share some of my flowers with the viewers.

 

Flowers in watercolor, Gouache on Yupo

One of the most joyous ways to have fun painting, to me, is Gouache on Yupo.  Yupo is a non absorbant paper that feels more like plastic than paper really.

I'd like to share some of my flowers that were painted that way.

Flowers in watercolor, Chinese brush paintings

Flowers, a free gift of beauty from nature, who doesn't like them?

Being a naturalist, I have always been fascinated by the different charming shapes and colors of flowers.
Under watercolor, I've painted thousands of flowers in Chinese Brush Painting, Gouache and Western watercolors.

From top to bottom, here are my Hydrangea, Queen of the Night, Magnolias, Chrysanthemums, Kapoks and Ceres under the full moon, all in Chinese brush painting.