A Habanero Nude

The Pines of Rome

Oops, this is pretty small.  I don't know why.  This is a watercolor that I did in my moleskin sketchbook while in Rome.  We stayed at the University of Dallas Rome Campus which is up in the hills near Castelgandolfo (the Pope's summer residence).  It was dusk and the trees were silhouettes against the sunset.  You could see the lights of Rome in the distance.  

Jude's Flowers

This is a tiny little bouquet of a common weed here in Texas, I think it's called pennyroyal.  My exquisite grandson, Jude, brought these to me yesterday after I had been gone for two weeks.  So this morning, I had to paint these flowers. Both the flowers and the painting are full of love.

The blue nude

I'm trying to show the process here.  I started out making four different compositions and chose the bottom one (charcoal) I actually made four different watercolors of the composition.  I wanted it to be more abstract than the drawing, so I laid in the form with clear water and then dropped in the color.

Roses

I put these roses with magnolia leaves and set it in a south window.  I wanted to capture the glowing yellows and soft oranges of the flowers.  This was sort of a time out painting from my larger painting that I've been working on for the past week.  So even though it is fairly large, I didn't spend much time on it.  The flowers are so gorgeous that I think I'll have another go at it later today.

Crying

Today I put my youngest on the plane to spend a semester in Rome.  She said that I wouldn't cry when she left.  Here is an illustration of what I really mean about how much I will miss La Madeleine for the next four months. 

Reclining Nude

Another view of the same nude.  The model held this pose for a long time and as I was doing quick watercolor sketches, I managed to get in quite a few wacks!  (At the paper, that is) This is painted in a handmade journal that I made with the help of My Friend Edwardine.  My original intention for this journal was to dedicate it entirely to sunsets, but nudes seem to be aggressively overtaking it.