“Miriam” – Portrait study
size: 12×13 inch
watercolor on 300 Lb (640 g) cold pressed paper
© Doris Joa

This painting I did completely different. Usually when working with watercolors I am having my watercolor paper laying flat in front of me. But this time I placed my painting on an easel and worked on the heavy 640 g (300 Lb) cold pressed paper from Arches.

I did not wet the paper first – I immediately put my colours on the dry surface.  I also used less water and made my colour mixes stronger. This watercolor technique worked very well for me and gives a lot of control of what you want to do. Of course I also worked in layers where needed and I am amazed how much I liked working in this way. This study was completed in a very short time and I just love the result.

“Daffodils with ladybug”
size: 20″x28″ (50×70 cm)
painted on stretched watercolor canvas
© Doris Joa

Please click on the image for a larger view

Detail image
© Doris Joa

This Daffodil Watercolor Painting is one of my latest work.

The Daffodils with the ladybug remind of Spring and all of the promise it holds. To me Daffodils are the herald of summer as they bravely pop their heads above the ground nearing the end of winter. I wanted to capture that first glorious flush of blooms. I hope they make you smile too.

I especially love to paint the colour “white” in watercolor. These large white petals give a lot of possibilities to play with all the colours. Although we can see so many colours in my shadows, like green, yellow, orange, blue, red, purple it is amazing that we still “see” the colour white.

In my previous post I told you about my new created Facebook fanpage. I want to say thank you to all who already do like me on Facebook again – it will be great to meet you there.

“Sangerhauser Jubilaeumsrose”
size: 12×12 inch, 30×30 cm
painted on stretched Watercolor canvas
Price: $210 plus $8 shipping insured

If interested please simply click on the ‘Add to Cart’-Button. In the left sidebar the shopping card will appear. Payment is possible with Paypal – easy and safe.

This is one of my latest Rose Paintings. It is a portrait of the Rose “Sangerhauser Jubiläumsrose” which I planted some years ago in my garden. I like the warm yellow pink colour of this rose and especially I love to describe the colours with watercolors.

Some days ago I ordered some new colours from Ken Bromley Art Supplies in U.K. The order was despatched at the same day and the colours arrived here in my studio within a short time. Of course I always love to get new colours and to try them out, but I especially liked that there was an extra note in the package which told me that my parcel was packed with care by Tony and he added the words “Happy Painting!“. I really liked this and I think this is a great customer service. Usually when I get packages only a bill is added to my products. But to get an extra note makes the package really special and it makes the customer feel special.

I too add always extra handwritten notes in each of my packages. For me each customer is special and I want that my customers feel so.

Pink White Rose with Bud
medium: Watercolor, size: 12×12 inch (30×30 cm)
painted on stretched canvas
(140 Lb Arches coldpressed Watercolor paper)
© Doris Joa

Here is one of my newest Rose Paintings. It is a pink white Rose with a bud and some leaves painted in watercolor on stretched canvas. It means that you don’t need to put the painting behind glass. It can hang without a frame, since the edges are painted, but of course you can put it in a frame like an oil painting without glass. The painting is varnished, so you can hang it without any worries.

Excample of how the painting looks on stretched canvas with painted edes – © Doris Joa

Size of the painting is 12×12 inch (30×30 cm), it is available for $210 plus $10 shipping.

For any questions please contact me using my contact form.
Maybe my FAQ page will give you already some answers.

Beside my new watercolor rose painting I would like to share some of my roses with you.

For my rose paintings it is very important for me to have a lot of reference photos. A lot of roses are growing in my garden but unfortunately not each rose has beautiful blooms every year. Often it rains too much and the rose is not able to show its full beauty.

© Doris Joa

from left to right:
first row: Rose Clair Renaissance; Rose Honoré de Balzac;
second row: David Austin Rose: Golden Celebration, Rose Ghita Renaissance

Last year I added the Rose Ghita Renaissance and the Rose Honoré de Balzac to my rose collection in my garden. Although I was waiting the whole summer to see the roses in full bloom and in its full beauty I was so disappointed to see that too much rain made it not happening. Grrr……….

But this year it seems that I have a bit more luck with them and I think I finally got some good referencephotos for future paintings.

I hope your roses and flowers are blooming spectacular in your garden!

I was very surprised to get an email from Susan Harrison-Tustain about my Rose Study. Susan the owner of the SusanArtForum told me that my Rose Demo which I did for her forum is very popular. I  did this Rose Demo a year ago and since that it had over 14.000 views, 607 replies on over 41 pages. WOW, that is really fantastic.

So many artists followed this study, used my Referencephotos and created their own paintings.

If you want to follow this study just click here.

You’ll get the Referencephoto, the drawing, the step-by-step-Demonstration and a lot of helpful tips from other artists there.

Please feel free to send me an email when you have posted your  finished Rose there and if I haven’t seen your Rose yet.

While there don’t forget to visit the other challenges. There are so many helpful tips posted in this forum for each artist no matter which medium you use.

“I am Sam”
Watercolor Painting – size: 12×16 inch (30×40 cm)
© Doris Joa

This is my newest cat painting in watercolor. The red cat Sam is painted on 140 Lb cold pressed Arches watercolor paper. It absolutely made fun to paint his soft fur, the bright sunlight, the old wooden door and frame.
On the floor I used a bit of Salt technique to get a nice effect on the tiles. I didn’t want to have only the white there.

I absolutely love the eyes of our cat. They are like Bernstein. Not very good to see in this painting so I think I will do another painting of him, where the eyes are very good to see. He is a very beautiful cat and he really is the King in our house.

Roses in Watercolor
© Doris Joa

I have finished three new Watercolor Rose Paintings. This are close ups of a red rose, a pink rose and a yellow rose. I love how they are bathed in sunshine.

The red rose is a very warm red rose. It is a portrait of the Rose Bonita Renaissance. The pink rose portrait is from the climbing rose New Dawn and unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the yellow rose. It only bloomed one year in my garden and then I saw this rose never again growing there.

Each painting is done on stretched watercolor paper – as I mentioned in previous posts it is like a stretched canvas, only the surface is watercolor paper. The edges are painted and no glass and no frame are needed, because the paintings will be varnished. But of course to have them framed together will make them looking spectacular. The size of each painting is 12″x12″ (30×30 cm).

Here is a photo of each Rose Portrait again:

Pink Rose, size 12×12 inch, watercolor painting
© Doris Joa

Yellow Rose, size 12×12 inch, watercolor painting
© Doris Joa

Red Rose, size: 12×12 inch, watercolor painting
© Doris Joa

Daffodils with Dewdrops
Watercolor Flower Painting
© Doris Joa

We are really waiting for spring here and to see our Daffodils and Tulips full in bloom. But where is spring? It is still cold and rainy. We already had some days with sunshine – but it seems that this winter is sooooooooooooooooooooooo long and we are really looking forward to see our flowers blooming – to see colours in our gardens.

As long as we are waiting here is one of my Daffodils painting which I did some time ago. The Original is sold and unfortunately no prints are available, as the DVD with the Scan of this Daffodil painting was broken. But I am already planning a new painting of Daffodils in watercolor – can’t wait to start.

“Heritage”
David Austin Rose
size: 12″x16″ (30×40 cm)
on 600 g (340 lb) coldpressed watercolor paper
© Doris Joa

A big thank you to Webdesign School Guide for including my blog in their 50 best blogs for watercolor artists. Thank you, Corinne

Another big thank you for including my blog in The TOP 50 Watercolor Paintes Blog. Thank you, Lisa.

And here is just another pink rose finished. David Austin’s Rose “Heritage” is painted on 600 g (340 Lb) Arches coldpressed watercolor paper. I really like this surface for some reason. Usually you don’t need to stretch this paper. But I stapled it to my board to be really sure. 

“Sammy”
watercolor on 140 Lb Arches coldpressed paper
size: 12″x16″ (30×40 cm)
© Doris Joa

This red orange cat enjoys being lazy in the grass. This watercolor painting is painted on 140 Lb coldpressed paper.