I am wishing you all a very Happy New Year. May it be blessed with health, joy, peace, luck, enough money, success in your career and all what you wish.

I want also to say "Thank you"  for your support in 2009.

There is a new figurative painting to show

I already have my first painting of a young child sitting at a river completed in 2010. It is painted on Aquabord in watercolor, size is 11x14".

This little girl with her pink dress and pink shoes sits at a river and she got wet feet.

For our Christmas exchange with some artists friends on Artcolony I painted our black cat "Timmi". The reference photo of Timmi was done some days before we lost him. It was the first time that I painted him. This painting went to Kay in USA and she told me that she loves the painting very much. So my surprise for her was perfect.

The painting is around 9x12 and painted in watercolor on Reeves Watercolor Board.

I also finished finally my figurative painting of "Ines". It is also watercolor, painted on Fabriano Watercolor paper, size is: 12x24".

If you are searching for some special art please keep in mind that I do take commissions. Since all other commissions for Christmas are completed I am having free time to take new commissions, if this is for a Rose or Flower painting, a portrait or a pet portrait or whatever you want. Please contact me without any obligations using my contact form here.

After all the kittens I needed to do some other faces. At first you will see a young girl with blonde hair and the second one is another beautiful girl with brown hair in a white dress.

The portrait is finished and is painted on coldpressed Arches watercolor paper. I love the blonde hair in sunlight. No masking fluid was used in both paintings.

The figurative painting is mostly finished.

I must check the hands and feet and may also add some colours here and there, maybe I also need to soften some edges, but mostly it is finished. The background will be as it is now. The girl is so present that nothing more is needed in this painting.

Here is a close up:

Size is 12x24, painted on Fabriano coldpressed watercolor paper.

I painted some more Roses. The Rose Heritage from David Austin, a pink and a red Rose and a small painting of the Rose New Dawn.

You can view the images here on my Rosesblog.

Some days ago I got a message from a beginning artist from Canada. He told me that he is learning watercolor and oil painting and wants to develop his skills to paint as an artist for his career. He was asking me if I could give him some advice.

The only advice I can give him is to paint, paint and paint.

There is no fast way to learn, but you will see: the artistic journey is wonderful.

Of course visiting classes is also a good help. But when this is not possible there is the wonderful Internet. There are so many wonderful forums like Wetcanvas.com or ArtandArtistry.com which are helpful for each artist, where you can show your work and where you will get often good help to your work, advice for art business, Infos about colours, mediums, techniques and so much more.  Books about painting are also very helpful. It is great to have a good library. On Amazon.com you will find many books about painting. Studying other artists work is also helpful.  Look at the old masters or other artists which work you admire. So many artists today are writing blogs and share their knowledge for free, show Demos, do Videos on Youtube, but you always have to paint, paint, paint.

Regarding blogs from artists: Just today I visited the blog of Carolyn (Carolyns Paint Blog) and found this wonderful thread where she told about her experience to paint a landscape together with Ron Guthrie. I very much enjoyed reading this thread and that she shared how they worked on a Landscape. Although I am no landscape painter but I always like to learn something new, which will always be helpful for my own work.

Ah ... my own work. I have here the next step of my figurative painting.

I have started with the tree. For the tree trunk I used the colours: Raw Sienna, Alizarin Crimson, Winsor Blue (green shade), Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Sap Green.

You see there is only slow progress, but I am also working on a beautiful Rose painting on my Rosesblog.