©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Blue Bookmarks. Apx 1.5 x 6.5 inches plus tassel.
I decided to make more bookmarks in the same vein as these. I really didn’t have any use for them though, but thankfully I knew three people in need of a new bookmark.
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 ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Blue Tests. Watercolor on hot press paper, 5 x 7 inches. Dick Blick was running a sale awhile back and I took the opportunity to order some more blue paints. Above is the result of my experimentations with my new colors. Previously, the only blues I had on my palette were cerulean blue and phthalo blue. I bought some M Graham cobalt blue, ultramarine blue and prussian blue. I’m not too impressed with the prussian blue though, because it seems like it’s just a darker version of phthalo blue. I really love the cobalt blue though, and I think this might be my new favorite blue.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Pears and Apple. Watercolor, 2.5 x 4.5 inches. While organizing through my art supplies during my move, I found a number of watercolor fruit still lifes that I had completed last January as a practice exercise. I will show you all of them later on, and I’m thinking of making more because it was such good practice. Thanksgiving is going to be really hectic for me this year, but I can’t wait for my relatives to meet baby Cate. She is truly the best gift I could have asked for. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving with your families as well.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Sardinia Seaside View. Watercolor, 4 x 6 inches. This is my submission for this month’s Virtual Paintout, located on the island of Sardinia. Looking around on Google Street View, I thought that this would be the perfect vacation spot for me. I love the dramatic landscape, and the sea is so beautiful. I would love to go there for a week or two and paint lots of watercolors. Hurricane (tropical storm) Irene proved to be a real non-event for my family other than our power going out for one hour. There was a gentle, steady rain with almost no wind. I’ve seen the lake more choppy on a sunny day in fact. It was generally just a gray, yucky day. Thankfully, I baked up some tasty whole wheat blueberry-oat scones that morning.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, 8-28-11 Sketchbook (Hurricane Irene). Watercolor in large watercolor moleskine. Unfortunately, my friends in Franklin County didn’t fare so well. I was so sad to hear about the covered bridge on the Green River and the flooding in Shelburne Falls, including the idyllic Bridge of Flowers. Below is a watercolor I made last year of the Deerfield River as seen from the Bridge of Flowers. It is so sad to think of it as such a destructive force. I still have some reference photos of the bridge itself from that trip and I’ve been thinking of making a painting to remember it like it used to be. I’m sure they will fix it all up at some point, but it will be a long time and will take a lot of money.  ©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Deerfield River. Watercolor, 5 x 7 inches.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Leaf Painted Bookmarks. Apx 1.75 x 6 inches plus tassel. I was feeling like painting something not too serious, and I had some scrap watercolor paper on hand. I ended up painting some leaf-like patterns with various greens and blues and turning them into these two bookmarks. I haven’t had a proper bookmark in years so these will get good use. I bought some crochet thread at Michael’s a few weeks ago and I used it to make a tassel. I have never made a tassel before and I am not the best with following written directions, but I’m happy to say that I was able to figure it out with some practice. These are the best directions I found online because they are the most specific and have the best photos. On the back, I used my new Noodler’s pen to write this quote:
 ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, June Roses. Watercolor, 6 x 9 inches. This is the watercolor that I’ve been working on here and there over the past few weeks. I was orginally painting white roses, but I made the shadows much too gray and drab. I ended up repainting the roses this much deeper mauve color. The color does work better, but now the flowers seem much too stiff–more like something you would see on a vintage floral printed fabric. I’m not sure if I’m really pleased with this painting or not, because it is really nothing like what I had originally wanted to do. I am happy that I finished it off in either case though. Regardless of the final product, this was still a valuable exercise because I hadn’t been painting in awhile and I badly needed the practice. Now I feel more confident to start on a new project.
 ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Blue and Purple Flower. Watercolor on 5 x 7 inch greeting card. I am attending a wedding later this summer. Instead of buying a generic card, I decided to paint my own, making it a part of the gift. I feel that it is a big risk and also an imposition to give someone artwork unless you are positive they will love it. Painting a greeting card, on the other hand, is pretty low risk because the recipient will not feel obligated to display it. That said, most people really love a handmade card. My sister has framed the birthday cards that I have given her over the years. Now she has a nice collection hanging on her wall. Later on this year, I am going to have some of my paintings printed onto cards, so I have some already on hand. Also, it is more economical than painting an original every time. For this painting, I used this photo for reference. I don’t normally use other people’s photos, but I did in this case.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, New Zealand Hills. Watercolor, 6 x 9 inches. After taking a break from the Virtual Paintout for five months, I decided to give it another go. This month, the location is New Zealand, which is a great place for finding beautiful landscape scenery. I’m really happy with how this painting turned out because it seemed so easy for me to paint, which is rarely the case. I almost completely forgot about the time and just had fun painting.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Bowls (stacked). Watercolor in 5.5 x 8 inch sketchbook. I feel really good to be making progress after such a long time doing nothing. I’ve still been working on Every Day in May, having only skipped two days because the topics weren’t something I had access to (and I didn’t feel like drawing from a photo). One benefit of this project is that I’ve been able to quickly fill up the remaining pages of my Pen and Ink | watercolor brand sketchbook. The paper of this book didn’t really suit me, as it disintegrated with washes and buckled a lot. The top painting was done in the old sketchbook and the bottom one was done in my new watercolor moleskine. Even though I know there are people who complain about the watercolor moleskine paper, I am a lot happier with it. The paper surface is much better to work on, and there is less buckling (as you can see from the scan).  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Green Bell Pepper. Watercolor in large moleskine watercolor sketchbook. |
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Copyright ©2012 Carolyn A Pappas - All Rights Reserved |
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