30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Thirty

"Camera, Colors, Cup of Cocoa, Create, Clouds, Car, Complete"
LWatry©2014

Day 30 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge and I have "Completed" the challenge!

When I decided to do the challenge I chose to work with a theme to give myself some direction. The theme I ended up settling on was -Alliteration in the Titles. So, my paintings had to contain things that started with the same sound. I am glad I chose this theme because I ended up painting a lot of different things that I might not normally paint or paint together in the same painting.

The final painting is not really busy, but it ended up with 8 'C' words in the image - Camera, Colors, Cup, Cocoa, Create, Clouds, Car, and Complete.

I like how the camera strap feels like a road that the car is traveling on, the colored papers look like colorful fields, and the steam rising from the cup of cocoa could be creating the clouds in the background. I decided to ad an image in the lens of the camera for interest but also to show the Finish Line has been reached or Completed.

Thanks for following along on this painting journey! Today's painting "Camera, Colors, Cup of Cocoa, Create, Clouds, Car, and Complete" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available on Daily Paintworks for $90. Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty NIne

"Toys, Tazo Tea, Toast, and Tic-Tac-Toe" LWatry©2014

Day 29 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge and my alliterative title begins with 'T' words - "Toys, Tazo Tea, Toast, and Tic-Tac-Toe".

I wanted to paint a few of the toys I had sitting around my studio, yes they are mine. But, I couldn't seem to figure out what to put with them. Then I hit upon the tea and toast. The tic-tac-toe came to me as I was headed to bed.

The toast was interesting to paint. I couldn't quite get the crumbly feel on the surface until I used a small sea sponge and got just the right texture. And of course after taking my photos for the painting, I drank the tea and ate the toast. Killing two birds with one stone, as they say.

This painting, "Toys, Tazo Tea, Toast, and Tic-Tac-Toe" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available on Daily Paintworks for $90. Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Eight

"Chickadees, Chess, Checkmate" LWatry©2014

Day 28 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. I chose to tackle a painting that I thought would be a lot of work and time. But, after I got going on it, I found my process of painting the chess pieces and moved along fairly quickly.

The chess set is a huge human size set from a photo I took on vacation. So, I have shrunk it down to work with the chickadees. I decided to try Quinacridone Burnt Orange for the main color in the brown pieces and I loved working with it. It is a very vibrant color and I didn't have to do many layers because of that.

I chose to have the background be a bright blue and some of the blue reflects into the lighter areas of the chess pieces.

The chickadee that is flying adds a bit of motion to an otherwise static scene.


"Chickadees, Chess, Checkmate" is a 6"x6" watercolor and is available on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Seven

"Lego, Limes, and Lamp Light" LWatry©2014

Day 27 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days found me back playing with toys again! This time the painting is "Lego, Limes,and Lamp Light".

The Lego was from my sons childhood collection and the lamp is an old lamp base that came from my Grandma.

I had fun trying to create the feeling of light in the scene from the lamp. There is an upper light and a lower light on this lamp.

The Lego was actually pretty easy to paint. They are made of bright colors and only took a few strokes of paint to create the shapes and shadows.

"Lego, Limes, and Lamp Light" is a 6"x6" watercolor available for purchase on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Six

Day 26 in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. Today's painting is inspired by the beautiful fall colors of the Colorado Aspen changing colors. The painting is titled "Apple, Aspen, and Album".

I decided to make the photos in the album soft focus or blurred so that they wouldn't distract from the foreground apple and aspen leaves. I started the painting by blocking off some of the leaves and painted in the photos using wet-in-wet washes of color.

When I was taking my picture I looked for the shadows of the leaves to add interest to the scene. I also changed some of the colors of the leaves to make sense of the jumble on the stem and give them fall coloring.

"Apple, Aspen, and Album" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Five

"Green Glass, Goldfinch, and Grapes" LWatry©2014

Day 25 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days and I finished a few minutes before midnight! The title for this one begins with 'G' words - Green Glass, Goldfinch, and Grapes".

Once again this glass painting seemed to go faster than I though it would. It is all about painting the little abstract shapes and make sure there are good values. The glass is a few pieces that I have collected from depression era glass. I like the glow of the juicer.

I enjoyed painting the goldfinch and ended up getting a nice glow around his head.

The painting is not quite as intense in color as the image appears on my screen.

"Green Glass, Goldfinch, and Grapes" is a 6"x6" watercolor was juried into the 2014 Randy Higbee Gallery, 6" Squared Exhibition and Sale. The paintings are available through the gallery and online at: www.DailyBrushwork.com

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Four

"Monopoly, Marbles, and Mints" LWatry©2014

Day 24 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days is done. It was a late night completion, but I persevered!
This painting is "Monopoly, Marbles, and Mints".

My husband loves to play Monopoly and hopes the games go on for hours. So, I enjoyed painting the Monopoly and I wanted to paint the marbles and mints again, so a marriage of M's transpired.

I started by once again using one of my new favorite colors, Ultramarine Turquoise. I used this color very thinned down for the surface of the Monopoly board.

The little game pieces and marbles were fun to paint. I just needed to make sure I used enough value changes to make them look dimensional. The highlight under some of the marbles gives them the feeling of being reflective.

I like the layout because the big letters in the word Monopoly along with the angled edges in the front looks like an arrow pointing at the viewer.

"Monopoly, Marbles, and Mints" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available for purchase on Daily Paintworks for SOLD. Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Three

"Kite, Kiwi, and Keys" LWatry©2014

Day 23 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. Wow, I can't believe there is only one week left. I think my back will be happy to be done on the 30th. Way to much sitting for me!

Today's painting has the alliterative title "Kite, Kiwi, and Keys". I enjoyed painting the bright kite and the slightly more subdued kiwi and keys together. The kite fabric was enhanced by painting the thin lines of the square weave in parts of the image. The kite reminds me of flying a kite as a kid, but also Benjamin Franklin and the myth that he flew a kite with a key attached to it in a thunderstorm.

The kiwi was painted using olive green with a little New Gamboge mixed in to brighten it up a little.

"Kite, Kiwi, and Keys" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available for purchase on Daily Paintworks for $90. Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Two

"Chickadee and Chalk" LWatry©2014

Day 22 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days is completed. The painting is "Chickadee and Chalk"

I decided to paint a little simpler image for this painting because I have been getting bogged down in detailed scenes that take up to 6 hours to complete.

The concept for this painting is large pieces of chalk are laying around where a little child has played and a Chickadee has landed on one. I channeled my inner child to write the word 'bird' in chalk on the sidewalk.

To write like I was using chalk, I painted the lines and letters roughly and had some edges that were softened.

"Chickadee and Chalk" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available for purchase on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty One

"Origami, Orange, and October" LWatry©2014

Day 21 of the 30 paintings in 30 days found me painting things that begin with the letter "O". I started with origami pieces and ended up adding the October calendar and an orange. I also thought the scene would look good with bright colors to go with the orange and oragami papers.

When setting up this scene, I kept trying many layouts and wasn't satisfied, they felt too static or boring. Then today I tried again and knew I had the setup I wanted when I saw the accidental creation of a flower in the scene. Can you see the flower? Check below for the answer if you can't.

This painting, "Origami, Orange, and October" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

Flower Answer: Look closely at the shadow under the origami pieces. Under the origami crane are the leaves and the stem points toward the left corner where the bloom is. The shadow is exactly as it appeared in the scene when I took the photo!

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty

"Bells, Butterfly, and Blue Bird" LWatry©2014

Day 20 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days and I decided to tackle some glass objects. These are some of the bells that I collected for a while and the blue bird is a statue that my grandmother had.

I am actually surprised that I was able to finish it in one day. Because of the time constraints I didn't get as picky with all the little shapes inside each bell. But, painted in more general shapes and worried more about the values.

I only masked a few little spots and that also saved some time. I just painted around the white areas using a brush with a very fine tip. The green bell was painted with one of my new favorite colors - Ultramarine Turquoise.

The photo was taken outside and I found some good shadows from a deck chair to give interest to the background.

"Bells, Butterfly, and Blue Bird" is a 6"x6" watercolorr was juried into the 2014 Randy Higbee Gallery, 6" Squared Exhibition and Sale. The paintings are available through the gallery and online at: www.DailyBrushwork.com

I have a new class list out on my website. Two of the classes still have room and will be starting in the next couple of weeks. For more information see my CLASS LINK.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Nineteen

"Tickets, Taffy, Two Player" LWatry©2014

Day Nineteen of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge and I have opted for bright and busy! This painting was inspired by a visit to a local arcade with vintage games that you can play for pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters. The title is "Tickets, Taffy, Two Player".

I started the painting by masking the tickets and taffy and then started painting the very busy background. I liked the shadows the tickets created and the bright light on the other objects.

I added the far left, red, piece of taffy at the very end because I felt like that corner was too empty.

This fun scene, "Tickets, Taffy, Two Player" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Eighteen

"Cookie Cutters, Crayons, and Coffee" LWatry©2014

Day Eighteen's painting of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days actually was completed on Day 19. I had a busy day and didn't like how the painting was starting out. So, late in the evening of the 18th, I decided to start over. I then completed the painting on the 19th. I am much happier with the second version and realized I can only push so fast before I start to lose quality.

I started the painting by masking off the foreground elements of crayons and cookie cutters so that I could paint the counter top surface. I used a mouth atomizer to create the speckled texture.

The cookie cutters lend a story like quality to the scene because they are standing up. At first I had a lot of cookie cutters laying down and more crayons, but it really didn't grab me. So, by playing with the layout some more, I hit upon the final layout.

"Cookie Cutters, Crayons, and Coffee" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available at Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Seventeen

"Card, Candles, Coins, Canary" LWatry©2014

Day Seventeen of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days and today is my birthday. So, I decided to create a painting that celebrates birthdays. My mom and dad started a tradition when we were kids of giving us a dime for every year of that birthday. That's why I included the coins and they start with 'C'.

I used a card that I had stored away that my mom and dad gave me a couple of years back. I like how the colors on the card and the candles work together so nicely.

I found an image of a canary and added the notes coming out of it's mouth. I looked up the notes for "Happy Birthday". However, I don't think the final notes are correct. But, I like the added shape they create in that corner of the painting.
"Card, Candles, Coins, Canary" is not for sale.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Sixteen

"Butterfly, Bee, and Baritone" LWatry©2014

Day Sixteen of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. This painting is "Butterfly, Bee, and Baritone".

I masked the bee and butterfly and some of the shiny spots on the baritone. A baritone is like a small tuba. I decided to zoom into the baritone instead of showing a larger view so that you could see the bee and butterfly better.

I started by painting the baritone on the right side and then laying down the other various grays. I make my own gray mixes. One of my favorites mixes is cobalt blue, permanent rose, and aureolin yellow.

The bee and butterfly are a nice compliment to the shiny metal.

This painting, "Butterfly, Bee, and Baritone" is a 6"x6" watercolor and is available on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Fifteen

"Compass, Columbine, and Colorado" LWatry©2014

Day 15 of the 30 paintings in 30 days and my alliterative title for my painting is "Compass, Columbine, and Colorado". My mom and dad moved back to Colorado when I was 3, so I concider myself a Colorado native. I love the beautiful landscape of Colorado and Columbine's are the state flower.

I enjoy painting columbines because of their unusual shape. I started this painting by putting a first layer of light paint on the petals of the flower and its stem so that I could tell where the flower was compared to the background map. Then after this dried, I painted the shadow on the map. I did this first so that the lines of the map wouldn't smear. I finished the columbine and then started on the compass.

The compass is a sun dial also and I like the retro or steam punk look it has. I used Quinacridone gold as the base color and a purple mixed with the gold to gray it down for the parts not hit by light. I wanted to put just enough detail on the compass, but not so much that it would take a long time to paint.

The map was finished after the compass and columbine were complete. I finished painting in the main lines of the Colorado highways and some of the other pertinent information. I used a #6 brush with a very fine tip to paint in all the small details on the map.

"Compass, Columbine, and Colorado" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available on Daily Paintworks for SOLD. Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Fourteen

"Chickadees and Chain" LWatry©2014

Day Fourteen of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. I chose to paint a close up of three Chickadees sitting on a bike chain. I used my husbands bike as the bike source.

If you are wondering how I accomplished this image, I took a picture of the bike and its shadow. Then using my photo software, I added the chickadees from photos that I had taken of each of them in my backyard.

I like the mostly neutral or gray painting with the bright splash of red for a pop of color. I don't use tube grays. I mix all of my grays for an interesting variety.

"Chickadees and Chain" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Thirteen

"Froot Loops, Flamingos, and Film" LWatry©2014

Day Thirteen of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days and I decided to have fun with some items that begin with the letter 'F, namely "Froot Loops, Flamingos, and Film".

I had fun with this fanciful scene and the bright colors. The flamingos are little rubber miniatures that sit on my shelf above my computer.

I began by painting the bright Froot Loops container and the film envelope in the  background. The pieces of cereal were interesting to try and mimic the texture and not make too round or perfect. I like their reflections in the film strips.

"Froot Loops, Flamingos, and Film" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed). Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twelve

"Roses, Raspberries, and Rings" LWatry©2014

Day Twelve of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days and I painted "Roses, Raspberries, and Rings" because today is our 27th anniversary.

Thank you to my amazing husband and father, Michael. Those 27 years have flown by and I can't imagine spending them with anyone else!

This painting is not for sale. But, if you would like a keepsake for your anniversary, I could be commissioned to paint something like it for you. Contact me on my webpage here.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Eleven

"M&M's and Marbles" LWatry©2014

Wow, Day Eleven of 30 Paintings in 30 Days and I am still going! Today's painting was intimidating at first, but once I got started it was a lot of fun.

I love painting reflections and all the glass marbles were lots of little reflective surfaces. I enjoyed looking for the reflections in each of the marbles and painting the variety of colors.

I started by masking all the shiny spots and then just picked a marble and moved around painting the colors I saw. Once the back marbles were done and dry, I used a scrubber brush to soften the edges so that they would look blurry. The M&M's were were a nice contrast to the marbles with solid, bright colors.

"M&M's and Marbles" is a 6"x6" watercolor and is available for purchase from Daily Paintworks for $90 SOLD.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Ten

"Harmonica Hummingbird" LWatry©2014

Day ten of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days has arrived. I chose "Harmonica Hummingbird" for today's alliterative title.

I enjoyed painting the wings of the hummingbird and making them look like they were in motion. This was done with some wet-in-wet watercolor techniques and negative painting around the lighter feathers. I used Ultramarine turquoise and Prussian blue for the blue green feathers in the hummingbird.

Prussian Blue also appears in the background blue and was mixed with burnt sienna and Quinacridone Magenta to create the dark brown of the harmonica box.

"Harmonica Hummingbird" is a 6"x6" watercolor and is available for purchase at Daily Paintworks for $90. Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Nine

"Paint, Paper, and Paintbrush" LWatry©2014

For Day Nine of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days I chose to paint something that is a big part of who I am - "Paint, Paper, and Paintbrush". This is especially true right now during this 30 in 30 Challenge!

The paintbrush is the same one I have used for 20 plus years. It is a number 38 round, Golden Fleece by Cheap Joes. I even used my #38 to paint the brush in this painting!

The paper in this painting are pieces of paper that I crumpled after printing a drawing and a couple paintings of mine.

The tubes of Paint in this scene are some of the colors on my palette. I use about five different brands, but Daniel Smith paint is my favorite! The colors in the painting are: Pyrrol Orange, Pthalo Blue, Aureolin Yellow, Sap Green, Permanent Rose, and Quinacridone Magenta.

"Paint, Paper, and Paintbrush" is a 6"x6" watercolor and is Not For Sale.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 8

"Jeweled Jay" LWatry©2014

Week two, Day 8 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days found me painting a Blue Jay. I think Blue Jays are a very pretty bird and already seem to be wearing jewels in their feathers. I guess this Jay wanted to be even fancier and decided to put on some jewels!

The Jay was painted with a mix of cobalt and manganese with just a touch of permanent rose in a few places. The feathers at the tail area were painted with Peacock blue, a very bright turquoise blue.

"Jeweled Jay" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available for purchase on Daily Paintworks for $90 - SOLD

30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - Day Seven

"Lizard and Lupine" LWatry©2014

This is painting Seven in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. I have always wanted to paint a Lupine flower stalk from my garden. The lizard was from a trip that I took to visit my sister in Atlanta and we went to the Botanic gardens. The lizard was sunning himself. The colors of the flower and lizard go great together.

I used a soft focus background so that the flower and lizard would stand out. I did this by wetting the background with water and then put all the color in while it was still wet. I masked my flower and lizard with masking tape prior to painting the background to keep them white.

"Lizard and Lupine" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available for purchase on Daily Paintworks for $90 - Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Six

"Lemon Light" LWatry©2014

I can't believe I am done with Day 6 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge and it isn't close to midnight! My painting is titled, "Lemon Light".

Today's painting was enjoyable because of the subject, but also the analagous color scheme. For those that may not know, an analagous color scheme is one where all the colors are next to each other on the color wheel. In this case - yellow, green, and blue are analogous.

I created the green in the background by mixing Cobalt blue and Aureolin yellow. This is one of my favorite green mixes.

"Lemon Light" finished LWatry©2014

I know this looks like the same painting twice, but after looking at it, a couple hours after finishing, I decided that the green wasn't vibrant enough. So, I taped by painting back down and using a mix of Green-gold and Cobalt blue I did a wash of bright green over the background. It is a good thing I had signed the painting with a waterproof pen because I was able to paint over my signature without a problem.

"Lemon Light" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available for purchase on Daily Paintworks for $90 - Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 5

"Fiddling Finches" LWatry©2014

Day 5 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days found me painting "Fiddling Finches". These finches seem to have found the perfect perch and who knows maybe they will be able to play a tune along with their singing!

I enjoyed painting the fiddle and getting the surface to look like wood. I completed the fiddle and background music first. Then I started working on the birds. I chose to use the male finches with the tow birds facing the viewer so that their red chests would add some color to the scene.

"Fiddling Finches" is a 6"x6" watercolor and is available for purchase through Daily Paintworks - $90 SOLD

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 4

"Dragonfly Dominoes" LWatry©2014

I have finished my 4th painting for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. This one is a little bit of a departure for me. I decided that I really liked the idea that a dragonfly might be able to start a line of dominoes cascading down. So, I created this image.

I liked creating the dominoes and the reflections on the surface. I used a mix of Prussian blue and Pyrrol orange for my black.

This painting, Dragonfly Dominoes, is a 6"x6" watercolor.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 3

'Pears, Pinecone, Polka-dots, and Painting' LWatry©2014

It is now 11:43 pm and I just finished painting #3 for the 3rd day of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. I had a busy day and I had to work the painting around other things.

This painting was all about using the "P" sound for my alliterative title. I had fun with the different textures of the fruit, pinecone and cloth. It all came together pretty quickly once I got to painting. Does anyone know which of my paintings is depicted in the background of this painting?

'Pears, Pinecone, Polka-dots, & Painting' is a 6" x 6" watercolor. It is available for purchase on Daily Paintworks for $150 (framed) - Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 2

"Popcorn & Peppermints" LWatry ©2014

Day 2 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge and I am still going strong. I gather toward the middle of the challenge, it gets tough to keep it going.

Today's image has the alliterative title of - "Popcorn and Peppermints".  I loved painting the bright yellow and reds of the bad and peppermints. It was fun creating the soft focus popcorn inside the back compared to the in focus popcorn. With the reflections of the mints on the shiny surface everything fell into place. It looks good enough to eat!

Popcorn and Peppermints is a 6" x 6" watercolor that is available for purchase on my Daily Paintworks site for $150 (framed) -  Click here to purchase.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day One

I have joined Leslie Saeta's "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge. The challenge starts today and runs through the end of September. I decided I would have fun with the theme for my paintings and chose "Alliteration". The objects in each of my paintings will start with the same sound, for example "Popcorn and Peppermints" or Dragonfly Dominoes", etc.

"Chickadee, China, and Cherries" LWatry©2014

This painting is #1 out of 30 and is titled, "Chickadee, China, and Cherries". It is a 6" x 6" watercolor and is available for sale on my Daily Paintworks site for $90 - SOLD