Water Lilies 2011:13

I was satisfied with the painting "Water Lilies 2011:11" and was wondering what it would look like if I clean it up, make it on canvas.
I like the result. There is aspects I like on the original and others I like on this new one.
Not sure which is my favorite though

waterlilies 2011:11

From time to time I get the idea to paint a full-blown water lily flower.
Some times I like it, sometimes not. This one was painted without any pressure and have loose brush strokes. It turned out good I think.

Kitty's toys, where is Kitty?

And here is my take on the challenge, my interpretation.
Oh, by the way, turned 48 yesterday. =)

I signed up for "Daily Paintworks"...

I joined them for the challenges and the opportunity to get feedback from people that I don't know. It is always hard to tell what a friend really think.

The first challenge I thought I try is the "The Whole Cat and Kaboodle Challenge", but instead of painting the cat, I painted the alternativ, a picture of cat toys. Not many have done that. Not saying that I will not paint the cat, but the toys are more "me".
The picture I got to work from is this one.
I cropped it and used some artistic freedom. I wanted it to be my style.
Hope you like it. I had a lot of fun.
But first, here is the original.

Water Lilies 2011:8

Another on with gray clouds.

Water Lilies 2011:7

Went back to capturing gray clouds in the water. Like the cool gray with the blue and green. Kept it loose, painting on paper again. Like the feeling, the way the paint is absorbed by the paper.

wacky boxes with apples

Been together with my big love for 8 years now, celebrated it by (among things) with painting something different.

old meet new style

One thing that I enjoy painting is faces. It is a while since I painted one and am a little rusty. This isn't my best one, but I had lot of fun painting it.
The picture that I got inspiration from show how old beard and mustache fashions are back in style. Seen it in a lot of pictures lately.

Water Lilies 2011:6

Here is another one that I kept loose and more expressive colors.
The painting were square in size, but after I finished I realized that the composition worked better if I cut the image size.

Water Lilies 2011:6

Water Lilies 2011:5

One thing leads to another.
Usually when I paint I tend to go in an opposite direction either on the next painting or after a few in a certain style. When I paint I usually work with my instinct and often triggers the question what the painting would have been like if I went the other way. That mean that I often go from simple and strict, to more complexed and expressive. With this painting I went with more colors and more movement, with the contour lines keeping things together.

Painting on paper

Sometimes I paint on paper, sometimes on canvas. The difference is often that I loose up and get more free on paper, trying out new things. Sometimes the finished result feel like sketches, sometimes like a finished painting.
This one feels like a (I think) finished painting.

Big Pop Water Lilies

I liked the "pop water lilies" painting a lot. I thought I take it a step further and make a bigger one. With bigger I don't mean making the same motives bigger, bigger leaves etc. I mean making a more complex painting with more leaves and flowers.
I like the result a lot.

Pop Water Lilies 1-9, Final vision

This is how I imagined that they could be displayed, all together, and it works for me.

Pop Water Lilies nr. 9

Last and final (for now at least) of the series. Went with blue background, looked on the eight that were finished and thought blue is the missing one.
I like to paint these clean graphic paintings and how they look.

Pop Water Lilies nr. 8

Here is number 8. I put the 7 paintings on the floor and decided to go with a red/brown background. The result got a autumn feeling.

Pop Water Lilies nr. 7

I continued working on the "Pop water lilies" series, and I present number 7. I like this on a lot, such a glow.
Taking pictures of ones painting is hell. Sure, my camera isn't the best, but at least it's digital. I do own an old Olympus camera, but cost a lot to develop those pictures, and I still have a hard time getting the pictures to do the paintings justice.
Well, I need to buy a better digital camera, that is for sure.

Magnolia 3 (the canvas version)

Here is the one I did on canvas. The basic is the same as I painted on paper, with some adjustments.There is more details and I changed one of the background flowers to a bud. I think it works even better.
Think this is going to happen more, that I try new things on paper and some things will end up on canvas too.

Magnolia 2

This was my 2nd attempt to paint Magnolia. The first attempt was OK, I painted the red variation. I still think I can do better, I might show it later.
The second attempt was a painting on paper of white Magnolia flowers. I liked it a lot. I liked it so much that I decided to make a new version on canvas, a little larger than this one. I show that one later, but first the one painted on paper.
Hope you like it.

Pop Water Lilies nr.6

This is number six of my nine 12" x 12" paintings that I am calling "Pop Water Lilies".
I chose a rather neutral background this time too, a warm gray color.
I continued that path of making them very graphic, and it is very clean and crisp. I like it a lot myself.

Water Lilies Close up 2

My second painting on paper came from the idea to limit the color range, and just give the water tension and higlight a yellow green glow. I like the feeling of it.

Start to paint on paper

I was thinking about space (or rather the lack of it) to store my work. I haven't taken any big steps to sell my art and I have yet to begin searching for a gallery to show my work. I also think working on paper will allow me to try new things. This is my first one I did. I call it "water lilies close up 1"

Pop Water Lilies nr. 5

I chose to use gray as the background color for this one, can't go any more neutral than that. I think gray and orange is a very nice combination.
I also made this one simpler and cleaner than the earlier ones, more graphic in style.

Pop Water Lilies nr.4

When I started number four in the series I realized that I don't need to make the background (the water) blue. I am not a realist painter. My aim with these paintings is to make them simple, fun and colorful.
So this is the end result....

Pop water lilies nr.3

If they going to be able to hang side by side, they have to have different background color, so the square feeling is amplified. I chose a lighter and different kind of blue for this one.

Pop water lilies nr. 2

This one was painted at the same time as the first, just forgot to post it yesterday.
This is 2nd of planned 9 paintings...

Started a series of paintings....

My idea is to paint several 12" x 12" paintings. My objective is that this painting must be able to stand on it's own, but also work together with the paintings i have planned for this series (hanging side by side). Things that comes to mind are "simple, colorful, and pop". I call them "pop water lilies".
My aim is to paint at least 9 of them.

Black contour lines

Working with contour is a big part of my painting style. If I work without it, well it just doesn't feel like me. As an exercise I've tried to avoid using black lines as much as possible when I painted this one. In the end there are some black contour lines, but not as much as I usually do. I like the end result.

"2nd version

After I painted the water lilies with gray clouds reflected in the water, I wondered how it would look with a more restrained color scheme on the green leaves.

Start to paint again

After combining studies with work I decided to take a break from painting, but I am finally back in full force, took up painting in mid April.
The first painting I did was this painting of waterlilies with reflections of gray clouds. It was painted with acrylic paint on stretched canvas, 60 x 80 cm (24" x 31"). Since I paint water lilies a lot, I don't usually name them. This one is 2011:1.