Watercolors by Celia Blanco

day 29   Heart Wings watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"   day 30   Trumpet Flower   watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" MY COLLAGE OF THE PAINTINGS COMPLETED: 3 DRAWINGS, 25 WATERCOLORS, 2 TOSSED "Angel wing begonias" and "trumpet flowers" are my final paintings for the month. I worked on them together. "Heart wings" I started with the flowers and worked the background later. "Trumpet flowers" was the opposite. I'm always trying to see what works best. In the end, I'm discovering that it varies from painting to painting and there are no set of rules but just a lot of practice and more practice! Funny how I started the challenge thinking it might be easier the second time around. I found it harder this time even if I had prepared my ideas, photos etc. I work on my artwork everyday, in some way, even if for only five minutes. I don...

day 26 CAT NAP watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  The photo reference I used came from Paint My Photo . It's always great practice to paint greyscale. I should really do this more often. day 25 WINTERS ECHO watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  day 27 SNOWY HORIZON watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  Long cold shadows are what inspired me to paint both landscapes. The trees created interesting mirroring shapes on the snow in the early afternoon. I took the reference photo myself last year. My husband and I enjoy snowshoeing. It allows you to move away from the crowds and be lost in the woods. Of course, he has it all mapped out, I usually lag behind. I'm probably not the ideal hiking companion.    day 28 LAKESIDE WINTER watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  I am striving to tr...

day 23 Primroses watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  day 24 Prim and Proper   watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  We celebrated my husband's birthday this week and we received primroses wrapped in paper as a gift.  I approached the paintings differently even if I was working on them at the same time.  I sat down while I painted day 24 and stood up while painting the other. It is fun to see what works best. I tried to stay loose, working with larger brushes and forced myself to not fiddle too much. Something I normally do, it is very hard for me to not want to add that last wash or bit of color. I love to listen to Sky.FM as I paint. They have increased their selections and I find music to fit my every mood. For these paintings I picked Smooth Jazz. It's easy listening and great to tap your feet to! My work in  progress

(day 22)  Pear Dance  watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" (day 21) Apple Slices watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" ( day20) Kiwi with Spoon watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  (day 18) All Bunched Up  watercolor on  paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  Add caption   (day 17) Pear Shapes   watercolor on  paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" These last paintings are all about fruits. Fruits are one of my favorite subjects to paint. The possibilities are as limitless as there are fruits! I love to play with the shapes, colors and shadows to create different compositional ideas. I apologize about bunching them all up in one post. I have not had much time to devote to the computer this week. ( day 19) "Sunday Sketch" graphite on paper I've also included my "Sunday sketch...

DAY 14 MARKET DAY watercolor on  paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" DAY 15 THE GARDEN watercolor on  paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"   DAY 16   CARNATION watercolor on  paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  I am keeping up with the challenge, it is very difficult to complete a painting each day. I am not photographing or uploading my paintings on a daily basis, especially in regards to Leslie's site. This way I avoid a great deal of stress. I take MANY reference photos at my local market.  I get strange looks from the people who work there. I must look funny taking pictures of tomatoes and melons but so many great compositions come up every time I visit. "Market Day" is a painting of the flower stand with a bright umbrella. I buy many of my plants here. They had primroses yesterday which I will buy soon ! Day's fifteen painting is from a photo I snapped at a restaurant called  "Il Giardino" (in italian), which fitt...

DAY ELEVEN   HEART XMAS watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" Weekends are most difficult for me, I managed to stay on schedule with my 30 day challenge nonetheless. I admit that I am feeling exhausted. I was hoping that if better prepared it would be somewhat easier. It feels harder to keep up now than last time. I wanted a change of pace from painting from photos by setting up these two still-life's. I am either late or early on Christmas, but my daughter's last candy cane was arousing my attention. She plans on using it in a recipe called "peppermint hot cocoa". She very graciously will wait another weekend to try this out, spontaneously promising to share some with me! I turned the same candy cane in two different directions. DAY 12 STUDY OF MICHELANGELO'S   DRAWING FOR THE HEAD OF LEDA , SANGUINE PENCIL ON PAPER 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" Day twelve is another attempt to s...

DAY TEN   MELLOW YELLOW watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"   Yellow is the theme I have chosen for day ten. This is a photo I took at a beautiful garden in France one summer while on vacation there. Yellows are a challenge to paint with watercolor especially when building contrast and depth. The fun part of the challenge is that I feel encouraged to try new things.  DAY EIGHT AND NINE Days eight and nine was also the same, trying something new. I had a feeling it wasn't going to go well but I gave it a shot anyhow. I have an impossible time painting on hot press paper. It just soaks the pigment and the colors bleed into one another in an odd way. I also added the challenge of working on two paintings at once. I thought I could do it, I had something in mind but it just did not work. It's good to try in order to understand your limits. My days' eight and nine efforts are ripped up and have become part of my scrap...

DAY SEVEN Primary Pansies watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" I am happy to be on day seven! Last fall I bought a bunch of colorful pansies I fell in love with. I can't thank you enough for your encouraging comments!

  DAY FOUR DETAIL OF MARY FROM THE "PIETA" BY MICHELANGELO DAY FIVE   SUMMER LIGHT watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  DAY SIX   SUN RIPE watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" WIP

DAY TWO   Cheers watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" DAY THREE   Summer Daisy watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7" I had to stay up late to paint both of these paintings. I hope to be on a better schedule next week. I found a cork, remnants from our New Year's Eve party while cleaning up. I thought it funny that  my initials are on it. I love the texture of the cork and originally had  set out to paint only with sepia but ended up adding other colors. The daisy is from a reference photo file. I take many photos at my inlaws' beautiful garden especially during the summer months with their garden is at its peak. I love the play of light against the dark of this composition. On a great note, today I received an e-mail from Ken Bromley Art supplies. Earlier in December I volunteered to test their website. They awarded me £50 for helping, awesome gift! I can't wait to buy much ...

DAY 1   Little Darlings watercolor on FABRIANO Artistico paper 12,5 x 18cm/ 5" x 7"  €30,00 unframed I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! I signed up for Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. It is my second time around, I think it's a great way to begin the year. Last year I signed up the day the challenge started, I am more prepared this year. I don't have a theme, I rather just paint what I enjoy and can create within the short time frame of a day. Additionally, I plan to post my daily work on my Facebook page and my website (which I finally started !). I will blog every few days, showing my progress with a few paintings at once. Last year's first painting was a clementine. I thought it would be fun to see how I have progressed over the year by choosing the same subject.  I thank everyone once more for the support and kindness you show.  I hope this year will be one filled with much color and creativi...

This is a collage of the 30 paintings created by me during the month of January. I wish everyone a good weekend!

" A Different Perspective" watercolor on paper 7.5 x 11 in./ 18.5 X 28 cm. my first painting in the challenge, 30 days ago This is my thirtieth painting-taddah!!! I titled my painting "A Different Perspective" because I feel I have a new perspective on life after having completed this challenge. Thirty days ago, I threw myself into this with the hope of sharpening my skills and improving, in some way. I can paint every day but the  challenge for me was to complete a painting everyday. I feel I've gained speed all around and am more confident . I've gainded a better understanding of color choices and know exactly what color will produce the effect I want. I feel I'm gaining in the ability to control the water. Once you get your creative juices going, you just want to keep going! I know this is just a drop in the bucket and I have still a long way to go in gaining skill but I feel I've learned an invaluable lesson. I started out with a c...

"A Cool Pear" watercolor on paper 6 x 4.5 in./ 15 x 11 cm. A pair of pears painted with two different color palettes. At night, using only a limited cool palette consisting of: lemon yellow, alizarin crimson, cyan blue, pthalo green, coeruleum blue and vandyke brown. My daytime pears instead I used only a warm palette consisting of: cadmium yellow, cadmium red, ultramarine blue, burnt umber, permanent green and yellow ochre. I worked the colors using mostly wet into wet technique. It is very difficult for me to limit myself to only six colors. I have a "the more the merrier" approach to color and hope this excercise will, at least, teach me to be more selective and to think more about color properties. Day 28 and 29 can be checked off! "A Warm Pear" watercolor on paper 6 x 4.5 in./ 15 x 11 cm.

"Can It" watercolor on paper 5.5x 7.5 in. / 13.5 x 18.5 cm.    I was drawn by Carrie Waller's beautiful paintings of glass and especially her Ball Mason paintings to attempt to mimic her work. I am in awe of the beautiful darks she achieves in her paintings and the strong contrast with light in her compositions. It's a great practice to try and learn from artist we admire. I also am a huge fan of Ball Mason jars, I take great care of mine and have had them for years.

"Rainy Day Primrose" 6 x 8 in./ 15 x 20cm. watercolor on paper It's a rainy Monday and I thought that painting some flowers might cheer me up. I tried a looser approach with a bigger brush ( size 20 ). This is day 26, only four paintings left. See the other artists who are participating in Leslie Saeta's painting challenge by clicking here

"Citrus"  15 x 6 in./ 38 x15 cm. watercolor on paper I changed paper size in order to accentuate the composition for this still life. I have much citrus fruit around, it abounds this time of year. My mother-in-law gave me many freshly picked lemons from her neighbor's tree, which I plan to paint in the near future. This is day 25, I really plan to take a little break when this challenge is over.

"Fancy Whiskey" 6x7.5/15x18cm Nothing like having a glass of whiskey in a fancy glass. This was a wedding gift and something that gets used seldom. With all its cuts and reflections, this would have been easier to do from a photograph and I can see why watercolorists prefer that. Our eye reacts to color so much more in reality than in a picture, it's good to have a balance between the two. This is day 24 of 30, see the other artists who are participating in Leslie Saeta's painting challenge by clicking  here.

"Brushes" 11.5 x 4 in./ 29 x 10 cm. watercolor on paper I am enjoying painting daily but find it difficult to keep up with the snappy titles. I usually give it a lot of thought but can't think of anything else except "brushes". It's also difficult to paint a painting in natural light with a quickly setting sun. At one point I was in the dark but couldn't turn on the light so as not to change the shadows too much. Maybe I should rename this painting " Twilight Brushes"?  A little more expressive. I never managed to catch up with the challenge, this is day 23 and I'm still a day behind. I will do 30 paintings nonetheless but I don't think I will manage to do them in the time allocated. Have a great weekend, everyone!

"Feelin' Blue" 6 x 7 in/ 15 x18 cm. watercolor on paper I'm feelin' blue, blue, blue...this is day 22! See the other artists who are participating in Leslie Saeta's painting challenge by clicking here