The end of the June Challenge

Today is the last day of the June Challenge - and I've done it!
A painting a day every day in June.

Here are the last seven paintings.

We'll start with this beauty

In the Wildflower Field

then Glass 1

with this one, I painted the glass and used some gentle washes in the background

Glass 2

with this one, I painted the paper with a light blue tint, then painted the shadows and shapes around where the glass was. This gave the impression of a glass vase, though I never painted that directly. Hope that makes sense.

Wimbledon

of course, I've been watching the tennis at Wimbledon this year - and this is my little homage to the tradition of strawberries and cream.

Sailing Away

just a seascape from my imagination.. water, reflections, red boat, rugged mountain. I can taste the salt air, mmm !

Breakfast

a freehand set of fish, feeding in a pond

and finally, Splash!

a little flower, in watercolour, with touches of ink.

I hope you've enjoyed the June Challenge paintings - all thirty of them.

I also have some great news. One lady saw my pears and wanted all four.
She's agreed to sponsor a kennel at Battersea Dogs Home as payment.
As you all know, that's where my Missy came from. I couldn't be happier.

If you're wondering what's happening with my novel, there's a new post about it on my other blog HERE

Thanks for bearing with me through this Challenge. I'm going to continue to post once a week, because it gives me more time to come visit you  - and that is important to me. Now I'm going out to enjoy the Sunday sunshine. Tomorrow I'll come visiting. Cheers!

June Challenge paintings

In this set of paintings, there's one from a friend's photo, taken in Scotland.
In the others, I decided to take one drawing and then to be creative with it - and attempt to make six very different versions.
I've written what I did to each, for those who like to know these things!
Enjoy.

Exodus

Take One - the drawing
from this simple drawing, I attempted six creative versions

Take One - 1

watercolour, wet in wet first layer, wet on dry second, softening edges as I go.
Dabbed some white gouache with fine brush around seed head where dark paint felt too strong.


Take One - 2

watercolour, first layer wet in wet, second layer wet on dry, no softening edges and third layer wet on dry, again no softening of edges. Dabbed plain water with fine brush to lift clear spores around seed head.

Take One - 3

watercolour. first wash very wet, scrunch up a sheet of cling film and pressed into wet paint. Let dry for a few hours, remove. Second glaze of paint on outside leaves only. Seed head, shadows and background painted wet on dry.

Take One - 4

watercolour, first wash very wet and then table salt dropped in. Waited for a few hours to dry, then brushed salt off. Second wash wet on dry on outside petals only. Second wash on green background wet on dry, slight softening of edges. Seedhead and spores wet on dry.

Take One -5

watercolour, first wash wet in wet. Second on outer petals and background wet in wet again, taking care not to lift the first wash. Decided to use rigger to paint veins on internal petals - wet on dry. Spores and seedhead, wet on dry.


Take one - 6

watercolour, aquapasto, ink. The aquapasto (thickening medium) was added to each wash as it was in the palette. Then first wash was painted wet in wet. Second wash on outer petals and orange parts of inner, were painted wet on dry. Ink was used for spores and seedhead. Background around signature was one wash of pure watercolour.

That's been my creative week - I hope you've enjoyed watching what I've been experimenting with. There's one more week of the June Challenge left to do and I'm still aiming at a painting a day to complete it. Right now, I have no idea what I'll do for the final week, but I do hope you'll be back to see!

Seven new paintings in June Challenge

Today I have seven new paintings to show you, from my June Challenge of a painting a day!

Roscoe, Best Rescue

Squawk

Big Boy

Little Delights

Mellow Yellow

Purple Viola

Pear IV

If you want to see all of the June Challenge paintings in one place, go to my Gallery Site HERE

First full week of June Challenge

A painting a day. How hard can that be? Easy, right?
That's what I thought, but once you commit to say yes, sometimes inspiration flies out of the window. Or work gets busy, or there's the book needs attention and always there's the ongoing rehab for the ankle.

So on the days I got busy or inspiration was lacking, I fell back on my favourite fruit, the pear. Just so you know. It is possible to do the challenge, but sometimes a little leeway is needed. That's where my pears come in.

So sorry if I'm not around to visit blogs, but I need to do this. It felt as if some of my painting had become stale, so I'm hoping this will force me to be fresher and grow a little. In fact, perhaps if I'd done thirty different pears, I'd be forced to be even more creative!
But thirty different pears I have not done. I do hope you enjoy viewing what I have done. You'll see some experimentation over the next few weeks.
As ever, I do enjoy your comments, even if at the moment, I haven't the time to reply. Thanks for your patience as I try to grow as an artist.

The week's paintings.

Cider Days

Shepherd Snowman

Pear II

Poisoned Apple.

Roadside Flowers

Herb and Fruit.

Pear III

and finally, here's a bonus one - I had a lady ask me for a pencil drawing of one of her dogs. Not actually a June Painting - so I've not included it in the above section, but drawn in June, so here she is:

Amber

A Challenge for June

Over at Painting Friends, we have a new challenge.
Its to paint something every single day in June!

Now, I haven't the time to post every day with a new painting, so I'm going to post once on a Monday, with everything I've done in the week previous.
That way I still have time to work, walk my mile a day and keep up the 5-times-a-day-exercises to repair the torn tendon in my ankle. Which is doing very well, getting more stable with each week that passes.

Anyway, to the painting:

June 1st and 2nd

 Leo II

Pear I