Third Time

Do you find the expression, "third times the charm," rings true for you?

Many times it takes me three times before I learn the lesson or make an attempt to get something just right. This THIRD time I am hoping to achieve a final and expressive watercolor painting of the bougainvillea from my travel photos of Greece.

In the first watercolor painting, I am not happy with the color of the bougainvillea and I believe there is too much detail.


The second watercolor painting, which I finished today, is more playful and colorful. But then, I found myself laboring on a few details.


The THIRD watercolor painting, which I began today, will flow more smoothly having had some experience painting the bougainvillea.

Stay tuned........

For Botanical Art Lovers

From Iris Series

by Rosie Sanders

Rosie Sanders is a self-taught artist.

She's known for pushing the boundaries of ‘botanical’ painting. Her close-ups of flower heads are painted on a hugely magnified scale. Paintings can be as large as 5 feet across and up to ten times bigger than the flowers she is depicting. She works in bold and saturated colours in watercolour on arches paper, building tension by leaving much of the background bare and rarely allowing the flowers to touch.

She uses dramatic lighting and lights her flowers from behind with bright light to reveal the translucency and texture of the flowers’ petals.

Two youtube videos made by Tod Grimwade are a "must see!"

Rosie Sanders Part 1: The inspiration behind her work where she talks about her garden and why she finds flowers inspiring - and shows us a number of very large works

Rosie Sanders Part 2: Rosie at work in her studio where she shows us her studio, her techniques for the way she works and the brushes she uses for watercolour painting on this scale.

Rosie Sanders at work - painting an iris from life in watercolour
from video 2

Teahouse Kuan Yin

May 9th seven of my watercolor paintings will be on display at the Teahouse Kuan Yin.

The tea house is in the Wallingford district which is north of downtown, on the other side of Lake Union close to the University of Washington. It is a cozy little shop that has been around since 1990 and sells bulk teas, tea ware, light meals, desserts, and hot or iced tea in a fun and relaxing atmosphere.

Michelle, my daughter, loves to hang-out there. You can find her every Friday sipping Jasmine tea and doing some creative writing. She inspired me to contact the owner about displaying my art.

Apparently this tea house is very well known because I have mentioned it to several different people from Olympia to Shoreline and they are familiar with it. So, if you are in the neighborhood, stop in. Marcus, the owner, asked for some of my "bright" watercolor paintings of flowers to liven up the place. I will oblige!