Watercolor Photo Painting

I have taken several pictures of things from the studio and plan to turn them into line drawings to paint some simple watercolors from the photographs. I printed these two line drawings on Arches 140 LB paper. It's fun and quick. My goal was actually to paint them more whimsical-like such as Kelli Nina Perkins does (she has a great DVD). But they always end up with fairly realistic colors.  Maybe I will paint them again with bright and outrageous colors and see what happens.  I just love the yummy colors she uses. It takes courage to use those bright colors and I must try and see if I can overcome my fear!!!  Just do it!

On the Road to Callaway Gardens

Ok, well, some painted photos turn out better then others. For some reason this one doesn't send me ...and I think that the more detail I have the more tendency I have to paint it exact and actually I am trying to alter it as I paint. I really don't know what I am doing but when I find out I will let you know. I will post a few of these I have been working on. Some are better than others but they are all fun to do.

This scene is very dear to me. It is on the same road as the Crossroads Store going to Callaway Gardens and I went by it almost everyday because I used to ride horses out that way when I was younger. I use to ride Hunter Seat, fox hunt and jump over very high jumps. We rode these fabulous Connemara Ponies that would jump over the moon if you let them. They were beautiful horses, not really ponies, some dappled, some mulitcolored---oh, what fun I had back then out in the open field and in the ring, carefree and feeling powerful on top of these beautiful horses. Ok, I am back to earth now...thanks for letting me daydream and reminisce out loud...maybe someday I will see my "Rosie,"again, the wonderful horse that I trained when I was 15.  

Painted Photos

I have been playing around with some painted photos. I really enjoy painting the prints of the photos that Marc, our son- in- law, takes of the birds in their back yard feeder. He is a very good photographer and gets some really great shots. I tried it with two different backgrounds.  I used acrylic and add some mat medium first to make the paper less absorbent although I am not sure if that really makes much difference. I think it's a fun thing to do!