Watercolors by Celia Blanco

Pumpkins watercolor on Fabriano paper 30 cm x 23 cm/ 12 " x 9" This painting is based on a photo provided by art friend, Geri Berkenstock, painted with his permission.  I really love the warm colors of the season. It took me quite a bit of effort to build up the strong oranges, glazing my colors with many layers. This is a fun time of year, especially for kids. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!

  Fall Harvest watercolor on paper 30.5 × 23 cm  Available The rich vibrant colors of the season inspired me to paint this still life set up. I am unifying the objects by using similar colors, trying to work them together as a whole.

This month, my focus has been on street scenes and landscapes. I also like sketching while in my kitchen, it is the source of quite a few of my projects. I am sharing personal favorites from the month. It is interesting to sketch outdoors in a city. I try and keep to myself but it is fun to get some human interaction, people like to peek in. One sketch I completed while conversing with an elderly man. He wanted to watch and talk about art ( the market scene below). It is a wonderful brain exercise! I had some time while I was waiting for my daughter, it was her first day at driving school. I sketched this while waiting. Autumn is for apples and I have been baking all of my favorite recipes. This a new recipe I tried, found in an old Martha Stewart Living magazine. I painted her picture from the magazine, mine was not quite as pretty.  I love the color of this house with beautiful Bougainvillea plants growing over the fence. Perspective is hard...

  Down the Road 7".5 x 11"/ 18.5 x 28cm. watercolor on paper I painted two separate plein air paintings over the last two weekends. The first was a sketch of a country road. As I was sitting nearby, an old Fiat 500 came out of nowhere and drove into my painting view. I always have my camera at an arm's reach, I managed to get a couple shots of the car driving into the distance. I love the retro feel of the image. I used my plein air sketch as a color guide, combined it with my photo reference and took various things from both. plein air sketch 5"x 7" watercolor on paper   I wanted to keep the energy I feel I have in my sketch by working in one sitting, mostly wet into wet. I have been looking at Joseph Zbukvic's work lately and loved what he says "painting precise locations is irrelevant; simply keep the character." plein air sketch 5" x 7" watercolor on paper My second plein air sketch was painted a...