Another floral watercolor - Cone Flowers

In "spring mood" I did one more floral watercolor, with my PV19 pigments. They give beautiful pink colors which are really lightfast (I tested them myself) or purples when combined with a bit of blue. The painting is 10x7 inches in size, and it is done on Fabriano Artistico 90 lb CP paper.

More spring inspired: Pink Water Lily

Previous week at the watercolor workshop I teach at Community Center of Patras city I handled to the ladies quite a few reference photos of various pink and purple flowers: roses, anemones, cone flowers, fuchsia, water lily, orchids, and many more. Although the main scope was to test some new PV19 pigment-based watercolor paints,  they were so happy to work with these, after a couple of weeks working on perspective issues!!! And I was happy too, so after the workshop at home I started to work a few of the photos (by the way, most of them were from the WetCanvas reference image library, which is copyright free for all artists).
Here is the first of them, a Pink Water Lily, done with my usual palette on Fabriano Artistico 90 lb CP paper (size 10x7 inches)

In the spirit of ...

This is one of those time I saw a reference photo, shared by Mary (our host for March 4, 2016 WDE on WetCanvas), I like it and went for it, but then was disappointed with the result. I need to give it another go to this one, and re-work the entire concept. The title for this one was supposed to be "In between", with the meaning of the river between the two mountains, the time in between seasons (one part covered with snow, the other spring green). Now I am between keeping it (for a while) or directly send it to paper recycling. However, in the spirit of the WDE I had to scan it and share it with my friends.

China vase and orange lanterns

Previous week Mary hosted the WDE challenge on WetCanvas, and she shared quite a few beautiful photos. This still life arrangement, with a white porcelain vase (chinese style) and the orange lanterns (not sure if these are the flowers or the fruits of the plant... hm, need to check on this issue), was the first one I stopped, although I saved a few more photos for future references. The painting is 10x7 inches, and it is done with my usual paints on Fabriano Artistico 90 lb CP paper.

Butterflyfish ACEOs

Just in case you missed these little fishes, I have a couple more for today. Both are ACEO size (3.5x2.5 inches).

Tree Portrait

Few weeks ago we did a short excursion at about 100 km away from Patras, in the mountain area, near a village called Vlasia. The area is beautiful, with lots of green (pine trees) and snow during winter months, especially on the north facing areas. Our target was the snow, for the little one to have some fun (and not only), but we also stop to a place that started already look like spring, and I saw this tall tree standing out. It was like not fitting there, because all the rest around were much smaller. This is my second study (the first one was a 5x7 inch one), and I think soon I will go for a third one. Although I like it better, I feel like I haven't fully captured the grandeur of this tree. I need to go back to my reference photos.

Plain air studies - Achaia Beach

On Saturday we had a short walk on one of the beaches near the Patras city, Achaia Beach, and I had the time to do two small and quick studies. Actually I started for the two twisted trees, but while sitting down I noticed near me some small purple flowers with interesting leaves. And, of course, any wild flower fast get my attention. Both studies are 7x5 inches.

Spring fever - phalaenopsis orchid

About 2 weeks ago I got a pot with phalaenopsis orchids in bloom, which have this beautiful pink color, perfect to test some PV19 pigments. Here are two small (7x5 inches) studies: