My teabag art for today - the Amalfi Coast in Italy

My teabag art for today - a painting of an area of the Amalfi coast in Italy - WOW what a beautiful place.  We were there for a week and one of the days my husband and I rented a motorcycle for the day and spent the day driving up and back on the Amalfi coast and these beautiful little villages are everywhere.  We could smell Jasmine and honeysuckle as we drove.  It was such a beautiful day and a beautiful place.  This was a used teabag, primed with clear gesso - painted with watercolor and gouache and details added with black permanent ink pen.

My teabag art for the day is the Ponte Vecchio in Florence Italy

My teabag art for the day:  The Ponte Vecchio is a medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common.  

Boy what shops it has!  There is so much jewelry on display it makes your head spin.  I love this place!  This was painted on a used teabag with a gessoed background and painted with gouache - a black permanent ink pen was used for the details.

My Teabag art for today

My teabag art for today.  This was a square teabag and I added gesso lightly to the background.  It was painted with watercolors and gouache and then splatters added to the background.

Tea Bag art for the day - May 8, 2018 "Porcelain Lady" and "Innocence"

These are the tea bag paintings I did for today.  I also have a tutorial under the heading "tutorials" telling you how to make the mirror image transfers as seen here.  

A new watercolor just completed of a pair of Ladybugs titled "Lady Luck Too"

Have you ever had one of those days when you see something or you go somewhere and the inspiration hits you to paint something?  Well, that's what happened to me today.  This is being done for the Doodlewash April 2018 challenge - paint something you loved as a kid.

I happened to be in the garden at our house and I had a ladybug land on  my arm.  I love ladybugs.  The are so brilliantly colored and those distinctive black spots so perfectly shaped on their backs always amazes me.  

I was told as a child that if one lands on you, you should hold perfectly still, make a wish and then let it fly off and your wish will come true.  LOL, well I am not sure that is true but I still get great pleasure out of them landing on me.

So, long story short, I decided to paint a ladybug (or two) in watercolor.

I have to be honest though, this painting started out as a 5X7 and I hated the bottom two inches of it so much I cut it off to make it a 5X5.  I show it as an example in a 9X9 frame with a mat.  I'm particularly happy with the leaves on this.  I wanted the blue background to be more opaque so I painted it with white gouache and then dropped in indigo and green and let them mix on the painting.  I love the effect.

"Original Watercolor painting titled "Flamingo Rising"

I decided I wanted to do a watercolor painting of a Flamingo.  If the Flamingo spirit animal appears in your life, it means it's time to turn to your emotions and use them.  Whatever you do, you should follow your heart because it will help you choose the right way.  I named this watercolor "Flamingo Rising" .  I wanted to use bold bright colors as if the Flamingo were rising from the flames.  I started the background first with several washes of bold colors and painted the flamingo in colors of red, fluorescent pink and flaming orange, leaving touches of white.

This is also a 5X7 and fits in an 8X10 frame with a mat.  It is painted on 140lb/300gsm premium watercolor paper.  All of my paintings are for sale on my facebook page DKJartoriginals

Cyclamen pen and Ink watercolor times 2

I decided that I wanted to do a pen and ink watercolor of a fuchsia colored Cyclamen.  I had never seen one before and on our first trip to London, I saw them in window boxes everywhere.  At first I thought they were fake flowers because it was so cold and they were so stunning and perfect.  I saw some in window boxes outside of a pub and finally went in and asked them what type of flower they were because, spending most of my youth and adulthood in Virginia, for some reason, I had never seen any grown there.  

Anyway, I wanted to try my hand at painting them.  The above photo does not do the painting justice as I scanned it and the scanner did not seem to pick up the beautiful fuchsia color well.  The framed photo below is what it actually looks like.  This is a 5X7 and fits in an 8X10 frame with a mat.  It is painted on 90lb/190gsm premium watercolor paper.

Ok, so now I have a fuchsia colored Cyclamen and I wasn't sure if I was happy with it or not, so I decided to do something different with the same drawing - I'm not sure this would be considered an abstract, but it is definitely different.  I decided to put a triangle in the center and only paint what was inside the triangle.  The rest I just left my pen and ink drawing.  I'm not sure what I think about it, the jury is still out!  And again the scan of it does not show the true color of the fuchsia I used but the framed photo does.  This also is a 5X7 and fits in an 8X10 frame with a mat.  It is painted on 90lb/190gsm premium watercolor paper.  All of my paintings are for sale on my facebook page DKJartoriginals.

Thank you for looking!

"Peace" pen and ink watercolor wash fashion illustration

I just completed this pen and ink wash of a female in her favorite tank and jeans with the iconic peace sign around her neck.  All of my paintings are for sale on my facebook page DKJartoriginals.

Thank you for looking!

Another watercolor Pen and ink of two ladies at the beach titled "Chin Wag"

Just completed this watercolor pen and ink of two ladies enjoying the day at the beach.  I have titled it "Chin Wag".  All of my watercolor paintings are for sale on my facebook page DKJartoriginals.

Papillon (Butterfly Abstract) pen and ink watercolor wash

Just completed this pen and ink watercolor wash abstract painting of a pair of hands holding a journal with a completed painting on the page.  I titled it "Papillon" because it reminded me of a butterfly.  All of my paintings are available on my facebook page   DKJartoriginals

Thank you for looking!