Violet Apricot 16 x 13 Watercolor & Pastel on Canson Plate Finish Bristol paper
Private Collection
To celebrate the transition into the new year, I’ve been experimenting with various art supplies in my studio. As part of my Begin the Year with Less Clutter Program, I’m thinning supplies and giving things away. I have three sets of pastels, and I rarely use them, so I’ll keep one, and donate two. This pastel over watercolor was a fun test to see which pastels suited me best. I’m giving this art away too: more details, and more art to follow in the next few blog posts. 🙂
The reference for Violet Apricot was one in a series of photos I took on my kitchen counter in the house we lived in until a year ago. (I used the same photo to make a monotype – here.) I have hundreds of photos of flowers and various objects on the reflective (white) tiles against the kitchen window in the sun. When we moved into that house, I wanted to replace the white tiles right away with something more modern – corian or stone, etc. My husband wasn’t in such a hurry for that upgrade. The first time I put a rose in a vase on the counter in the sun, I was smitten with the urge to paint it. This happened around the same time we started using digital cameras, and I took tons of photos of roses and still life arrangements at different times of day to record the myriad shades and hues reflected in the tiles. Once I started painting the scenes – like this one, and this one and this one, I decided that I *loved* those white tile counters. All my swooning over the tiles gave my husband something new to tease me about; “Hey, let’s get rid of the tile and put some granite in the kitchen.” I’d shoot him a squinty eye; “Don’t even think about touching my tiles!”
The house we live in now has no tile. It’s all very lovely shades of amber, black and gray matrix granite, and I love that too. Now that we are settled in, it will be an exciting year of arranging and collecting a whole new set of photos to use as inspiration and documentation of the beautiful vignettes of light and color we live with every day. I look forward to sharing my discoveries here with you, and I wish each and every one of you a Happy and Creative New Year!
Lovely work. I adore roses of any hue. When I married I had the most beautiful boquet of yellow roses and whenever I smell the scent of roses it reminds of that very special day.
I think your work is just exquiste. Thank you for sharing your work.
Great painting. I’m trying to sort out things in my studio too. Not sure that I’ll have this kind of result!
I love the painting and the post. It’s so nice to learn that your husband teases you the way mine teases me. I love your description of the light, and can see all of those beautiful paintings in my mind that featured the tiles. What a great painter you are! Happy New Year to you. (I hope it’s not too late to say this — the year still feels very young.)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoBarbara
I love this and I feel the same way about my white tiles in the kitchen. My husband wanted to put in new counters, but I said I would like to hold off for awhile. Our house was built in the early sixties. The craftsmanship is remarkable. We bought the house in 1999 and I’ve been holding off on replacing the counters ever since:)
This is just lovely…
Really beautiful! I love the way you handled this–really stood out in the thumbnail on my blogroll. You always have such an elegant touch!
Lovely combination of the watercolor and pastels. I know what you mean about the counter. Our counter is white tile also (very 80’s I guess) and I thought we would replace it. I put an amber glass dish on the counter and with the downlights and sun streaming onto it, there is no way the tiles are going anywhere! What a bit of drama in the kitchen:)
I am looking forward to your posts this year. Thanks as always:)