paris breakfasts: how to paint watercolors

Showing posts with label how to paint watercolors. Show all posts

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Rouge Jaune Bleu

Rouge, jaune et bleu aquarelle

I bought this little (1 3/4") Limoge-style perfume holder in Passage Jouffroy

I've been playing with mixing colors: reds + Yellows + blues since I got home

The most basic color triad out there.

Maybe I was inspired by these red cafe tables

On rue Rambuteau

This lemon yellow table top looks just like

A tarte au citron

Or Wayne Thiebaud's round yellow cheese painting full of reds and blues too.

Red + Yellow + blue are used a lot around food.

Like this boulangerie painting of a wheat girl

Or this chef eating his dinner and licking his chops

Down the street on rue Rambuteau is Cupcake Berko, famous for their colorful mini cupcakes. More goldeny than bright yellow but this tarte fine is still yum.
This post is making me hungry!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The only other time I painted in a bathroom was in Paris iat Hotel la Louisiane. The great thing was I could run around the block for still life subjects like French tea cups, macarons and chocolate boxes.

My setup in Maine was pretty terrific since I had wi-fi handy, just no French chocolate boxes around the corner. *Warning: the 1st part of this post is a bit of an infomercial...

You may not have noticed but I have a new seating thingie..

I discovered Backjoy in Real Simple magazine and since I had sciattica last year I investigated further.

I watched the videos

and read the reviews bla bla

I decided to give Backjoy a whirl.

One of the hazards of painting watercolors all day is you sit too much. You curl over like a caterpillar, which end-of-day doesn't feel so great.

Backjoy feels like my spine is a stack of pancakes straight up instead of the usual curled over position. No negative after effects I'm aware of so far. I can even sit on the floor and sit up straight. The only disadvantage, after taking it with me to Maine (it's light weight) on and off buses/cars, is I left it on the Boston Megabus to New York. Lost and Found can't find it.
Someone is sitting pretty.

I ordered another - this one I'm adding RED stripes so it's easily visible on the AirFrance seat.

(end of infomercial)

What I painted in my Maine bathroom/studio:

Guerlain perfum bottles ...

More Paris blobbing...

Les chateaux...

More blobbing to come.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Blobbing Venice

I was looking for my 'waterproof' map of Venice for Alison (like you're really going to fall into a canal like Katherine Hepburn!) when I discovered an old pile of blobby Venice watercolors from days of yore...

It certainly helps to pick up a few post cards whilst in Venice to blob from - your shapes are cut out for you comme ca.

Taking pictures at l'heure bleu/dusk is another way to get your major shapes cut out for you to paint from. Yes that's moi in '97.

A double-blob

Paint in your background blob skyline on top of a wash of gradated colors. Then you can add a gondolier or two in the foreground. Easy peasy.

Canaletto could blob a gondolier with his eyes closed.

So can Huck Scarry in his Venice Sketchbook

One of Scarry's gondolas. Another suberbe blobber is Jean-Louis Morelle.

Blobbing puts you in a meditative state of mind.

I touched up an old beginning this morning by adding some washes to the sky and water.

Then a touchup to the skyline

Et voila

Thursday I'll be back blobbing up in Maine at David's Fall watercolor class. I need to brushup of my watercolor skills for Paris in October. But first on Wednesday I'll be blobbing for board - giving Rita/Sketchbook Wandering une petite lecon before we scour Portland for macarons and then head up to David's next day for blobbing immersion.

BONNE BLOBBING TO YOU!