Post Sabbatical

I AM BACK!!!

Yes, I gave myself permission to take a year off from painting. Funny, when I have used the word "sabbatical" in my explanation of "why I am not painting," I never looked the word up. In the definition it says "a period of paid leave." That did not happen! Needless to say, I have been enjoying life and that is payment in itself, right?!

At Breakfast Club, inspired by my two creative friends, Don and Linda, endeavors at publishing their written art, I began to paint. Not only that, I signed up for a class at South Puget Sound Community College: Intro to Welding and Creative Metalwork.

I am excited by the unknown possibilities of creativity from this day forward. Is it the quiet before the storm? Maybe the seed germinating ready to sprout? I feel the energy and it feels great!

This collage painting was brewing in my mind after spending time at Gleneden Beach, Oregon. Hiking down to the beach with my good friend Elaine and our doggies, this vista presented itself. I wanted to capture the beauty and delight I felt upon experiencing the view. I needed to give it more personality than just the typical gorgeous view; thus, the watercolor collage painting evolved.

Joanne Osband
Watercolor Collage

Cannot Resist

Hooked again by color and beauty!

Innocently I went to Home Depot to pick up an item for the house. Mistake number one was to enter through the nursery door where I saw the most gorgeous hibiscus flower. The colors were phenomenal!!! The price too was outrageous! I also had no room in my car for the plant.

I continued on my mission to locate the object needed for my project. BUT,this little voice in my head...........said go back.

This beauty won my heart!

George volunteered to hold her on the trip home.

Needless to say, I am enjoying this lovely plant and its blossoms. Here is my first painting in watercolor and ink.

Sunday Sketches

Shapes again....

I just LOVE the shapes of the Calle Lily!

I am sooo looking forward to the bloom of the yellow, pink, and orange Calle Lilies that I have planted. I wonder why they decide to show up later than the white one?

I tried to keep this watercolor painting very simple and not loose the flow.

More Sunday Sketchers

Sunday Sketches

Name that flower, please!

It spreads like crazy and reminds me of a bad hair day.

What a challenge to switch from oil painting to watercolor painting. Recently, I have been working on several square oil paintings to enter in a fundraiser art show. I wanted to have a sketch for today, so I decided to do something quick in watercolor. As I was layering paint I realized that I lost the watercolor effect. So here is a watercolor painting done like an oil painting.......weird!

I e-mailed my friend who is a master gardener about the name of the flower......unless YOU know!

ANSWER: Centaurea Montana

Trillium Addiction

I cannot kick the habit! The trillium wildflowers are still in bloom in the woods, and some are turning from white to pink. I am still captivated by the two plants I saw growing tall against the massive cedar tree.

Here is the oil painting version.....

On my third rendition which is a large watercolor painting.

Addiction is acknowledged.

Recovery, uncertain.

Sunday Sketches

Help, I cannot quit painting Trillium!

It must be a phase I am going through ;)




Visit more Sunday Sketchers

No Excuses

I am using the holidays as an excuse for not painting even though I do not believe in excuses.

In order to set the record straight, I will gear up on artistic creations since I have one month to complete the sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project 2012.

I am amazed by the spectacular blooms of the tropical plant,Anthurium, which has a predominant spot in the living room window that faces south. It just loves this spot and graces me with blooms year round.

After completing this sketch and watercolor of the Anthurium, I am considering a full size painting.

Oriental Dogwood Painting

I cannot believe that this painting has been sitting on my drafting table since spring! I was concerned that the tape which I use to adhere the watercolor paper down to prevent buckling would be permanently stuck to the table.

In a former blog, I shared my love affair with the Oriental Dogwood Tree which came highly recommended as an addition to my landscape plans.

I also posted a sketch of the lovely flowers which I drew as one of my Sunday Sketches.

Finally, the watercolor painting is done!

Ta Da.......here it is:

Sunday Sketches

My first sketch of the lovely oriental dogwood that I planted last year. Each day the flowers seem to get more pink and today they are coral. Guess I will need to do another rendition of the flower.....

I have another watercolor painting in progress on my drafting table at the moment.

This is one GORGEOUS tree!

Favorite Watercolor Painters Past & Present

Fumee d'Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris)
John Singer Sargent
watercolor
1880

Today I received an e-mail from artist blogger, Katherine Tyrrell of Making A Mark, who queried about one's favorite watercolor artists.

I enjoy reading her blogs on a daily basis, but this one caught my eye because I had never seen paintings by the favorite British contemporary watercolor painter, Trevor Chamberlain. As Katherine indicates, Trevor Chamberlain says so much with minimal effort. My favorite painting is Sunbeds and Parasols.

Of course, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent made the list of favorite watercolor artists of the past.

What a treat to visit the various websites and view watercolor paintings of all the artist Katherine listed as people's favorites.

Also the watercolor paintings of Kiff Holland caught my eye.

Leaf Trellis

When I decide to enter an art show, one criteria is that the show is located in a place I like to visit or would like to visit. The bonus when one of my paintings is accepted.....I get to plan an adventure.

In May one of my watercolor paintings was accepted into the Sequim Art Show. When I dropped off the watercolor painting, my friend Shelley and I hiked the Dungeoness Spit to the light house. On the return trip, my friend Janet and I stopped at the Whitney Gardens and Nursery, an art show, the Blue Whole Gallery, the Native Art Gallery, and my favorite place "Over The Fence".

"Over The Fence" is a unique garden store in the heart of Sequim, Washington. What a fun place to visit and get ideas for the home and garden. On this adventure, I saw two leaf trellises which would look outstanding as landscape art. They came home with me!


Closer view


With the dinosaur egg


Thinking about adding some flowers around the base....

Rhodys In Abundance

Sunday I traveled with my friend, Janet, to Sequim to catch the last day of the Sequim Art Show and to pick up my watercolor painting. Janet suggested we stop at the rhododendron garden on our way.

I had never been to Whitney Gardens & Nursery in Brinnon, Washington, and what a RARE TREAT. Whitney Gardens is at the foot of the Olympic Mountains and has the most beautiful array of rhododendron hybrids and species in the Northwest nestled among rare trees and ponds. Also in abundance are azaleas, magnolias, maples, conifers, kalmias, camellias, perennials, trees, shrubs and ground cover. It is definitely a breathtaking experience especially when the rhodys are in full bloom as we experienced.

My favorite was this Rhody tree whose name I have misplaced.


The small greenhouses of rhododendrons were organized by colors and one greenhouse had fragrant varieties.


I especially like the colors and rows of maples.

Getting Ready To Open

I can hardly wait......

The beautiful Iris in my front yard have started to open and what a gorgeous sight! Hopefully the coming rains will not wipe them out.



Ebony could not understand why she was not getting attention.



Definitely a future watercolor painting subject!

Strange Beauty

Last month as spring began to unfold, I blogged about the strangely interesting flower, the Hellebore.

It has become one of my favorite flowers because of its unique details and untypical colors. I took several pictures of the ones blooming around my house and knew, one day, I would paint from them.

In this watercolor painting, I have captured the three stages of the flower and exaggerated their shapes with black ink. As the flower opens, inside you see the tubular nectaries whose shapes I find fascinating. I also like the way the stamens open and seem to dance. Finally, the center elongates into pod-like forms. The flower lasts this way for months!

Hellebore Trio
Joanne Osband
watercolor and ink
15.5" X 22"

Sequim Art Show

This weekend I am traveling up to the Sequim/Port Townsend area to deliver a watercolor painting that was juried into the Sequim Art Show which opens May 3rd.

Part of why I entered this show was an excuse to visit the beautiful area. I will spend Saturday in Port Townsend checking out their art galleries, spending time along the water, and eating seafood. It has been a very long time since I visited Port Townsend. Sunday, we will travel to Sequim the home of the famous Lavender Festival. Sequim is also noted for more sunny days than anywhere else in Washington.

The art show was juried by Mike McCollum and will run to the end of the month. The Museum & Art Center is located at 175 W. Cedar Street in Sequim.

This is the watercolor painting that was chosen:

Joanne Osband
Royal Purple
watercolor

The inspiration for this painting came from my neighbor's garden.

Return to the Beach

I am back at Paradise Beach on the east shore of Santorini in Greece. At least that is what it feels like when I paint a scene from my travel photos.

The day I walked from the town of Oia at the southern tip of Santorini to Paradise Beach (approximately 5 miles), it was one of those beautiful Greek days of sunshine and warmth. I left early in the morning so that I was not walking in the heat of the day. At least that was what I thought. Little did I know how quickly temperatures rise even along the shore. I walked the shoreline cliffs and could not wait to get in the water when I finally reached the beach. There was NO WAY I was going to walk back! Lucky for me there was one bus returning to town. I planned accordingly and learned that these remote buses do not consistently run on schedule.

I saw my first sand orchids as I walked the shoreline cliff.
The view.....


First glimpse of a beach, but I had to walk further.


On Paradise Beach looking south


Looking north


The sculpted cliffs


I spent the afternoon swimming and sketching. My memories linger while I painted this watercolor rendition of the rocks along the shoreline of Paradise Beach.

Parts I Like and Parts I Do Not Like

Self-portraits!

What an insightful practice!

Having completed the first self-portrait painted since high school, many interesting dialogues in my head have occurred. I mentioned previously that the process first started with capturing an image of myself that I liked.

As I painted, I found myself detaching from the image of "me" to depicting various features and colors. It seemed that I compartmentalized which we humans tend to do as a distraction mechanism to avoid reality.

Hummmmmmm.

As I continued to paint separate "entities" such as mouth, nose, or eyes my attention was focus solely there. I got lost in wrinkles and details. Due to this process, I feel that the watercolor portrait does not flow together and find myself liking only parts and not the whole. Interesting thought.....

I think I will continue the dialogue with another self-portrait. This one shall be freer and not have the "mug shot" feel.

I told a friend I would not post the self-portrait to my website as I did not particularly like it, but I will post it here out of curiosity for those of you interested in my process.



Back to the beach and rock watercolor painting to escape.....

Artists Helping Japan

Keiko Tanabe has created a fund-raiser on her Daily Painting Blog. Artist create a piece of art which is then downloaded to the website and entered into the auction. She has chosen "home" as a theme for all the artwork submitted. All art is for sale with the proceeds going to one of the organizations that collect donations for disaster relief efforts in Japan.

If you are an artist or interested in purchasing art, here is the information you will need to know.

"The Help Japan Challenge" does not have an ending date.

Each painting has an auction that ends at 9 pm CST at least 7 days after the painting was submitted. Be sure to check the time remaining on the auction page of the painting you are interested in to see when that auction ends.

I entered this collage watercolor painting:

How About A Cup
Joanne Osband
watercolor collage

Fascination With Rocks

My grandson, Haeden, came to visit me the other day, and he was fascinated with the pile of river rocks boarding the deck.



What is it about rocks that is so fascinating?

The colors and shapes attract me. When I was in Greece not only did I take photographs of rocks, but also brought some home from various locations, especially beaches. I have these small piles on a counter and not sure what to do with them.

Rekindling my love of rocks with Haeden, I began a watercolor painting from photographs of one of the beaches on the island of Antiparos in Greece.

This is just the first day painting:


A close up:




To be continued.......

Sunday Sketches

If you have noticed the addition of a sketch by Sophia on the lower right corner of this blog, it is a "button" link to a group of artists who sketch and post their sketches on the Blue Chair Diary blog. Of course, the event occurs on Sundays.

I came across this group from a blogger friend, Deanna, who contacted me and suggested I join. Discipline is good; the act of committing to doing a drawing once a week will be a good challenge. Besides, it will be fun to get to know others who are sketchers.

You can come along, too. View the submission each Sunday either by using the "button" here or subscribing to Sophia's blog.

I will miss this Sunday. It is my grandson's first birthday and you know where I will be :)

This began as a sketch and then became a watercolor painting:

Ask Me About My Grandson
Joanne Osband
watercolor