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.

As I said it seems to be my Rose week.

I have painted to more. The first one is painted on Reeves Watercolour board and size is 6x9 inch.

The other one is painted on hotpressed Crescent Watercolour Board and size is 6x6 inch. I really can still not say which surface I prefer for my watercolors. A long time I was a fan of the hotpressed paper, but for some reasons I also like the coldpressed paper and the boards and also the Aquabord.

The third painting is a Glowing Hibiscus, also painted on Crescent Watercolour Board, size is 4x4 inch.

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This is my newest watercolor painting of a young girl at the beach.
I have no idea which title I could use for this painting. I still remember when my kids saw the first time the ocean. It is like "Wonders of Nature" and since we do not live at the ocean I still feel the same when we visit the ocean in our vacation time. I am always impressed - deep impressed -.

I have done this painting on Textured Claybord (Aquabord) and size is 11"x14". I loved to describe the water, the waves, the reflections and the sand. It really made fun to do this painting.

For some reasons I love this Aquabord but there are also times when I hate it and there were many times when I could have thrown this painting away. It is not easy to work in layers on this surface, it is so easy to disturb the underlayers and especially when painting skins that can look awful. I am pleased with the look now and I will not touch the painting again. Each time when I tried to add another layer on the skin I always removed the underlayers and then I had to do the whole area again.

On the other side it was so easy to work with the water and the waves and the sand, because here I LOVED it very much that I could remove the paint and to get the white back. For this the surface was wonderful.

This painting was done just for fun. I loved the pose and the light and HAD to paint this immediately. Photo was done by myself and the model is my best girl friend.

It is painted with transparent watercolors on Textured Claybord (Aquabord), size is 8"x10".

I have decided for a title: "With the sunshine in her hair" fits perfect to this watercolor painting.

I am sorry. I wanted to show some photos about my newest oil painting, but unfortunately it didn't work. I had to paint all over, I was not really happy with the composition and so I have to start fresh again.
In the meantime I have just painted a small watercolor, again on Aquabord (Textured Claybord) from Ampersand.
If you have not paint on Aquabord yet, you simply should give it a try. It would be interesting to hear how you like it. It is so easy to remove paint and to get highlights back when neccessary. It is always good when we have not to worry about such things while painting and to know how we can easily fix areas.
This small painting is titled "The Pink Hat". I think it is clear why. LOL
Size is 8"x10".

For the skin tones I have used Raw Sienna, Scarlet Lake, Phthalo Blue, a bit of the hat-colour (like Alizarin Crimson, Purple Magenta).

I don't know what it is. Each spring I am always thinking about doing a pansy painting. This year it was the same. So I stopped at my local garden shop and bought some. This is the result:
The Pansies are painted on Textured Claybord in watercolor, size is 8"x10". Hope you like them.

'Friends'

This is my latest painting. It tells the story about a young girl and her best toy friend - a bunny.
I have painted this again on Textured Claybord. I really can recommend this Claybord, you should give it a try. Have a look at www.ampersandart.com for more infos. They have changed the name now into Aquabord.

I am playing with colours for the skin and I am just working on another head study . After this is done I will tell you more and also if I like my palette.

Time is running so fast, it is already over a week, since I have done my latest post here.
But today I can show two new paintings.

I am experimenting with paper at this time and also with my technique. For a long time I have always prefered hotpressed paper but now it is time to try out new things.
This head study is done on coldpressed Arches watercolor paper. I like to paint on this paper. The surface is not so smooth as the hotpressed paper but in many ways much easier to work on. I also like the texture. I have worked with transparent colours.

untitled

The next one is a Fuschia watercolor painting on Textured Claybord. For the pink and violets I have used colours from Daniel Smith like Carbazole Violet and Naphthamide Maroon and
Brillant Purple from Schmincke and Permanent Rose from Winsor and Newton.
As I mentioned in my previous post it is easy to work on this Claybord. The colours are drying very light so you must not be careful with pale washes. And when you have done a mistake simply remove the colour with a chisel brush, which works perfect on this Claybord.

Fuschia

I have shown the following small painting in an earlier post here .
I have changed the background to get more contrast and I think it works much better now.

Pansies

At first I want to wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008.

I have started the new year with a new watercolor painting. In the past time there has changed a lot in my thinking how I want to do my watercolors. For the past years I always loved to paint on hotpressed paper but it is time now to change something. I must figure out what pleases me most and what fits the best to my own painting style.
With this in mind I have tried to paint again on coldpressed watercolor paper. This paper has a nice texture and I must say the first day I did not get the hang of it and threw the started painting away. But I didn't want to give up so fast and tried it again. I changed a bit of my technique and it seems that this works for me.
At this time I am doing a figurative one on coldpressed paper.

Beside this I wanted to do a flower and I still have some Textured Clayboard. I have worked on Textured Clayboard some time ago, but never really liked it, because it did not fit my way of painting technique. Since I have changed something in my technique with the coldpressed paper I was curious how it would be NOW with the clayboard. And I must say I LOVED it. I loved so much working on it, it was more than easy. It was so easy to lift colours and to get the white back.

Pink Hollyhock, 11"x14",

I was able to paint this hollyhock in a short time and I really like the result. I will do another floral on this claybord - I will post this very soon.