Garzapapel watercolor paper - sample testing

It was a very nice surprise to find in my post box the sample from Garzapapel only a few days after I order it from their website (www.garzapapel.com). There were two sets of 3 sheets each for the two types (300 and 180 grs) of this hand made watercolor paper, which is 100% recycled cotton with four deckle edges and a very special extra white texture. Each sheet of paper has a size of 14x20 cm, which corresponds to approximately 1/16 (app. 5x7 inches) of a normal sheet of watercolor paper (usual size of 22x30 inches). The sample sheets were carefully packed, and as soon as I open the envelope I was surprised by the extremely white paper. As I have used papers from many manufacturers before, I think this one is close in color to the Kilimanjaro paper, but I do not have anymore of it to compare it. However, I do have many other papers to compare, as you can see bellow. I compared the 300 grs (140 lb) paper, as I do not have "light" paper (180 grs = 90 lb) from other manufacturers.

Garzapapel vs Arches White CP

Garzapapel vs Arches HP

Garzapapel vs Arches CP

Garzapapel vs Fabriano

Garzapapel vs Waterford

The texture of the Garzapapel watercolor paper looks very close to that of Arches CP watercolor paper. The Garzapapel is not that hard (board-like) as the other papers, and if I didn't knew they are the same weight I would think this one is lighter.
I put the paper on a light box to check how easy would be to transfer a drawing, and it seems a bit more transparent compared to Arches and Fabriano.

Following, I will do a comparative test of how the paper react to water/paints, doing similar paintings on Arches and Fabriano at the same time.

Anacamptis papilionacea - the Mediterranean Butterfly Orchid

During spring time I was surprised by the large variety of orchids that I was meeting at each step in our village (Kampi Village, Zakynthos Island, Greece), all of them so beautiful and delicate! I got many photos, but it was like never the light was the best, or the location of the little flower, etc. I think this will go into a small series of paintings of orchids from Kampi, and it will not finish very soon as I need to do some field studies for each species. However, here it is the first "portrait" of the so called Butterfly Orchid, although there are many species around the world with this common name. The actual species is Anacamptis papilionacea (syn Orchis papilionacea), and it might be the sub-species Heroica as it has quite big white "wings", but I am not sure about it. The painting has a size of approximately 10x10 inches, and it is done with W&N and Daniel Smith watercolors on Waterford 140lb Rough paper.

Pitharia - large-sized ceramic storage jars from Minoan era

These huge ceramic-made storage jars, sometime one meter tall, which are called pitharia in Greece, have been used since the Minoan era to store cereals and olive oil. They are still crafted in Greece, but currently are used for decor, to plant small trees or flowers, especially in the villages.
Our host for the May 30 WDE on WetCanvas, Athena (from Sparti) shared with us a lovely photo of these pitharia. I did some changes in the background, and I did try to capture the hot summer sun on the big jar. This watercolor on paper is about 7x10 inches in size.

Weekend Plain Air Studies

On Sunday we went out with my boy to a play ground, as we usually do in weekends, and for the first time I took with me my small field box. It is a Cotman field box, but now the Cotman paints are long gone and I have replaced them with various artist grade paints (W&N, American Journey, Daniel Smith) from tubes and let them bone dry to be able to carry it in my purse. I also have a Pentel brush, which allows me to go out without a water container - it holds enough water for small studies (7x5 inches). So, my son and my husband were playing, I did a fast study of one of the pine trees near by. I liked the leaning profile of the tree against the blue of the sea and sky. It was a direct paint application, without any preliminary pencil drawing, and I was looking to capture the tree "portrait" and the light.

Latter, at evening, I noticed the strange combination of sunset colors and close dark clouds while looking on the other side of Patras Bay, the Antirio mountain land. And did another small study with direct paint on the paper without any pencil drawing. I am starting to enjoy very much these small plain air studies!

I must get another one of the last done in the studio, with much stronger sunset colors, as they were in reality. Somehow, much of the color intensity got lost while drying.

Sweet Temptation - Figs on a Branch

I already mentioned in my previous post that I was going for this larger painting of figs. Due to other projects running in parallel it took me quite a few days to finish it, but I like it very much. The freshness of the figs on the branch, against the blue sky that filters between the big green leaves is very inviting! And these are indeed a very sweet temptation during summer in Greece (and in all Mediterranean countries I believe), but you have to think seriously about the risks before having too many of them! As summer is going to start in just a few days, I wish you a sweet time! The painting is about 10x7 inches, and it is done with Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith watercolors on Waterford 140 lb CP paper.

Figs - the summer Greek temptation, but what after?

The fig tree has been cultivated since ancient times and it is a common encounter in the Mediterranean area, and Greece make no exception. Due to the sweetness of the fruits, birds love them and spread the seeds all over the place, and it can easily grow-up with no care even in urban areas (not much desired, due to the aggressive roots).
One of my friends (client too) living in US had a vacation in Greece a couple of years ago, and when she saw a tree full of figs while taking a walk outdoor she couldn't resist the temptation to pick a few of them. She didn't take into account that figs have a strong laxative effect, and you can imagine what followed after enjoying the delicious fruits!!! Thus, take care when you see the fresh figs in front of you, as you must seriously consider the consequences!
I have done two small ACEO paintings of figs, and I think I will go for a larger painting too very soon. These are both about 2.5x3.5 inches in size, and are done with W&N and Daniel Smith watercolor on Arches White 140 lb CP paper.

Elderly Women In Patras Learn Watercolor Painting

I believe that either you are 5 or you are 50, your life and mental health will highly benefit by having access or the opportunity to take part in arts.  I am born in Romania, but currently living in Greece, having now my own family here. When my mother got retired I understood the value of a supportive community and opportunities that older woman could have if we all help a bit. This was the trigger for my decision to volunteer to teach a 30 weeks workshop (1 session of 2 hours per week, ) in watercolor painting to retired women (aged over 60 years old) at one of the community centers in my city (Patras, Greece). The workshop is foreseen as 1 session of 2 hours per week, it will start in September 2014 and will end in June 2015. The number of ladies expected to attend in the first group is about 15 (10 already confirmed).

The community center has space and infrastructure (room to host the workshop, furniture, etc) to support the project, but there are no any funds to support with the necessary materials, like watercolor paper, paints, brushes, sketch blocks, pencils, etc. Due to the crisis, it is almost impossible to find any governmental support for this workshop. Also, I cannot afford to pay these by myself, thus I am trying to find alternative ways to raise the necessary funds.
One of the first things that came to my mind is crowdfunding, and in order to make it worth and rewarding for people around the world to help with this project I am offering some of my Open Edition prints and my free time and painting abilities to create custom floral watercolors (subject choice and directions of the contributors to the fund raising campaign) as rewards. If you would like to find out more, please check my project titled Elderly Women in Patras Learn Watercolor Painting on Indiegogo. Even if you cannot contribute yourself, I would really appreciate any pins and noise you can make about it!

Calla lilies - the painting following the ACEOs little studies

This painting is based on the same reference photo as the two little ACEOs I did a few days ago. Thank you once more Li Newton (aka lisilk on wetcanvas) for sharing it with us! I was trying to get even more of the interesting calla shapes into this one, and push the colors further. It is done with my usual watercolor paints (W&N and Daniel Smith) on Waterford 140 lb CP paper, and it measures approximately 7x10 inches.

Do you think I did to many of the tropical fishes? A couple more...

Again, ACEO size (3.5x2.5 inches), two more of these funny little guys! I wish you a funny day too!

Calla Lilies - beautiful shapes!

The reference photo for these two ACEOs was shared with us by our WDE host on wetcanvas, Li Newton (aka lisilk), a great photographer. I always enjoy the collections she shares with us. Thank you Li!
I am considering going for a bigger size painting, and decided to do first some line and value sketches and then some small size color studies, and thus I painted these 2 ACEOs. Both are done with Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith watercolors on Saunders Waterford 140 lb CP paper. I wish you a colorful day!

More tropical fish ACEOs

These little guys are so funny to paint! Because of a request (kind of commission) to paint one more in horizontal format, I took the chance to do a few more of them. I had 3 ACEO paintings done at the beginning of the year, and since then I was thinking I would like to do some more, but always something else appeared. These ACEOs (3.5x2.5 inches) are done with Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith watercolor paints on Waterford 140 lb R paper. I hope you enjoy these two little ones!

Everyday Beach Treasures - seashells ACEOs

Since the weather has started to be much better, in the afternoons we are usually getting out for a walk, most of the times on the beach (unless my son asks for some specific activity). And the usual thing for me is to bring back at home some of the little treasures I collect - colorful and strange shape stones, seashell fragments, little branches which have been in the sea for a longtime and got interesting shapes and textures, colorful glass pieces, etc. One of the previous days I started sketching some of the shell fragments, and further painted some ACEOs. I am thinking about a bigger painting, with a combination of these shells, but I haven't decided yet on the composition. I hope you will enjoy my little treasures!

Daisy - little spring ACEO

Not having much time to work on bigger paintings at the moment, and at the same time feeling overwhelmed with Spring colors, beauty and emotions, and wishing to keep exercise my watercolor painting, I am doing some small size (ACEO, about 2.5x3.5 inches) paintings and I am sketching more.

Spring inspiration - Purple Crocuses (Crocus vernus)

The feeling of spring made me decide to chose a floral for the previous weekend WDE at WetCanvas. The selection of reference photos shared with us by katju was great, including blue pansies, yellow daffodils and purple crocuses (croci). I selected the purple crocuses photo, as for long time now I wished to paint some of them. Although this is not a wild species that is usually encountered in the Mediterranean area (Crocus sativus is well known in Greece, as it is documented by frescos found in Knossos - Crete), I still like them very much. I changed a bit the composition and worked differently the foliage and background compared to the original reference photo. The painting is done with my usual palette (combination of W&N, Daniel Smith and American Journey watercolor paints) on Waterford 140 lb CP paper, and has a size of approximately 7x10 inches. I wish you a sunny and happy Spring!!!

Crockery Shop watercolor painting, with step-by-step progress demonstration

For the March 28 WDE our host, KreativeK, shared with us a great collection of reference photos, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank her again! Among the photos, I was attracted by the variation of shapes of a photo showing some crockery (pottery) in a shop window. Although the lighting was poor, and the reference photo had a rather poor composition, I decided to give it a try. After a couple of sketches on paper, trying to move the pots around and change shapes to get an attractive composition, I decided to also change colors (in the reference all the crockery were white with blue details). I took many liberties with this one, and I do like many of the achievements very much, but there are still a few things that if I were to do it again I would probably change them. The final painting has a size of approximately 10x14 inches, and it is watercolor (W&N and Daniel Smith) on Waterford 140 lb CP paper.

Bellow, I will show you a few of the step-by-step images I have taken, as this painting took me many days to finish it, and I managed to take intermediary scans.



The initial drawing on the watercolor paper, which however has been suffered a few changes in the next steps, as while working on the painting I figured out a few things would be better if changed (i.e. perspective of the table was off in the initial drawing).

Initial washes applied to the background with Antwerp blue and foreground with Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna.

Next washes applied to background to get more color variation, more burnt Sienna and Payne's Gray in the foreground, and I started to work on the underpainting of the pots.

Working out the pots from the most far, and adding colors

Color on the blue pots and a few details fixed in the background/foreground and additional washes. Also some of the initial washes on the red pot.

And the red pot worked with the final washes, plus minor details on the rest. You have already seen this at the beginning of this post.

I did enjoy pulling this one out very much, as the reference photo was very far from what I was looking for, and had many things to do from imagination.