Work in Progress Wednesday (WIP)

This Wednesday I am giving a sneak peak of my latest birch tree painting. 

You may have seen my previous birch tree paintings in my Etsy store done  in gray and black. Birch trees are my favorite tree and bring back a lot of great "up-north" Michigan childhood memories.

I thought it would be fun to take a more whimsical approach to the trees using bright pink, blue and green paints.

It's turning out better than I had hoped, and should be ready for Etsy this week.  Check back soon for a link to the completed painting.

Flower of the month: Lily of the Valley

May is here and with it comes the Lily of the Valley or the May Lily. I though it would be fun to start working on a flower of the month watercolor project starting with the May Lily.

I have a patch of these lovely delicate flowers on the shady side of my yard and enjoy seeing and smelling them when they come up every spring. And I thought could use my Lilies as reference… But they haven’t bloomed yet, maybe by the end of May they will be here.

Weird fact - did you know that Lily of the Valley are not really lilies, they are actually part of the asparagus family? The flower symbolizes modesty, chastity, purity, and signify the "return of happiness". That’s a lot of symbolism for such a tiny flower.

What type of flowers are you looking forward to seeing spring to life this May.

Oops.... A Reminder To Always Spell Check

Proof that chatting and sketching can be detrimental to your art work.

On Saturday I had art day with my friend Cheryl, we went to lunch, the local Dick Blick art store and then we settled down and got to business.  I sketched a new painting, she worked with sculpy and we did a lot of chatting.

The chatting may have led to my embarrasing spelling mistake in said new painting, unfortunately I didn't even notice until my husband pointed it out to me when it was about 98% complete.  I mean I know how to spell Moulin Rouge so I didn't even think to spell check.

So I now have a Molin Rouge painting.  Other than the spelling error I think that it turned out pretty good.  I may even hang it at home to remind me to always always check the little things.