Watercolors by Celia Blanco

"Time for Tea" 10,5 x14,8cm , watercolor and colored pencil on paper Today we return to our normal schedule. Everyone is back to work or school after the Christmas break and the house feels sadly still. I'm happy to have this challenge to prevent the winter doldrums. The delicate white of the porcelain teapot was fun to paint this morning, although I was hoping to achieve less harsh shadows.Watercolor has a life of its own sometimes, at least I feel like it does! You can see my work in progress in the picture below. The light rolled in pretty quickly and I wanted to finish before the conditions changed too much. I'm happy with the color combinations of contrasting blue and yellow and am working on keeping my palette to a minimum of colors. I love colors and have a tendency to add too many. Trying to finish a work a day is helping me realize I need to stick to the basics and essentials of painting.  This is day six out of thirty!  WIP See the other artis

Portrait sketch-Day 4 I'm on day five of the thirty paintings in thirty days challenge and am proud to have made it through my first weekend! Today is even a public holiday in Italy. I am commiting myself to painting watercolors from life, not from photographs, for a whole month. My day four painting was a sketch of my husband while watching TV. It was difficult because he first kept moving and finally fell asleep all together. I worked quickly but the result became muddy nonetheless. I'm still showing it even if  I'm not happy with it because I think part of the challenge is not so much the final product but the process required to get there. In this perspective, it's never a waste of time and effort when a painting doesn't come out as wished. "Banana's" Day 5 Day five painting is a simple bunch up of bananas on a surface. I've also uploaded a better picture of yesterday's painting closer to the colors of the original. The sun bleache

"Mayan Chime" watercolor on paper 10,5 x14,8cm     I apoligize for the bad picture quality. My house gets the afternoon sun and gives the colors a warm hue. See what the other 250 artists who are  participating in daily painting challenge by clicking here!

10.5 X 14.8 watercolor I take my decorations down after the Epiphany so I wanted to paint a Christmas ornament before I put it all away on Monday. I'm trying to keep my compositions simple in order to finish one painting a day. This is the second, twenty-eight to go! See what the other 250 artists who are  participating in daily painting challenge by clicking here!

I have commited myself to a 30 day painting challenge hosted by Leslie Saeta. It begins today and I plan on painting small works from life in watercolor. I have decided to join the challenge in order to push myself to paint on a daily basis and to improve through painting from life. Happy New Year to everyone!

"Urban Christmas" 11.5x15.5 watercolor on paper " The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect!" -- Charles N. Barnard I never leave the house without my camera, you never know when a moment of inspiration will manifest itself. This funny store front caught my eye back in November. I guess it's a new trend, we are finding all the colors of the rainbow in the artificial Christmas tree  market. This store offered only purple and lavender but I've seen red, gold and silver. It would be fun to get one in evey color! Well, for now I'll keep to my traditional tree. I am planning to set my paintbrushes aside for a couple of weeks to better enjoy the holidays. One of the gems of the Season is the opportunity to thank my followers for the kind support they always show me. It is the greatest and most appreciated gift.  I wish you a beautiful and most serene Holiday Season!

"Three Scoops" ”Through art we can change the world.”   I mailed my postcard contribution this week to Los Angeles, California to take part in the Twitter Art Exhibit. The sales of the donated postcards($35 each) will benefit Art Division a nonprofit program for undeserved youth(ages 18-25) showing commitment and passion for the visual arts. An opening reception will be held from 7-10PM on Saturday, January 12, 2013 at E.U. Gallery.    Twitter Art Exhibit: Los Angeles is the third installment of an open international exhibition of handmade postcard art donated by hundreds of artists from around the globe.