Watercolors by Celia Blanco

To the victims of the recent tragedy in France, peace, prayers and blessings! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Breakfast at the bar This is my first experience of coffee shop sketching, I've been wanting to try for a while. I imagined a happy scenario, and many sketches would come out of it. Unfortunately the waitress cleared my table before I was able to say anything, oh well... people smoking and sitting with friends are allowed to linger longer. My sketch above is what I was able to get down. I'm happy with the gestural line and the few colors I managed to capture. I wanted to go back in and work on the cup more but it being an exceptionally foggy morning, nothing was drying.   A "quiet" side street in Rome Afterwards I transferred to a side street. I wasted valuable time finding an out of the way place to sketch. It is not an easy task in Rome.  Parked cars leave, people co

Autumn on the Farm watercolor on paper 30 x 23 cm Available This was painted as part of the October "All media challenge" for the Artist Daily Friends group I belong to on Facebook. I was attracted by this photo (kindly provided by Karen Duncan) because it brought me back to my childhood, to the long car rides to view the autumn foliage. It seems sights like this are quickly disappearing to make room for strip malls and housing developments. Thank you as always for taking the time to visit my blog!

   Morning  Stream 21cm x 29,5 cm watercolor on paper  My husband found a perfect spot for kayaking. Last week I accompanied him, I enjoyed bringing my paints along. I tried to capture the light streaming in from behind. I also wanted to focus on the rocks.  I worked on it some more at home but tried to get down as much information as I could while there. The light moves quicker than I can paint. Great for pushing me to keep my brushwork loose.   My work in progress, my subject and a little visitor wanted to come home with me. All in all a fun day!  Thanks for stopping by.

CLOUDS AND SEA watercolor on paper 29cm X 21cm I had the oppurtunity to paint plein air at the beach this weekend. I know many people speak about art for its therapeutic effect. Now that the summer crowds have left, I really felt that way. Thank you for the visit!

Spider Plant Study I watercolor on paper 12,5 cm x 18 cm I enjoy studying leaves on plants. Because of this, I found the stripes on Spider plants to be an interesting subject. In my first study, I limited my palette to Quinacridone Magenta, Quinacridone Gold and Ultramarine Turquoise, all from Daniel Smith.   Spider Plant Study II watercolor on paper 16cm x 24 cm  For the second study I used my regular colors because I wanted to focus more on the leaves.

Pears In a Bowl watercolor on Hot Press paper 22cm x14cm / 8"5' x 5"5'  I painted this still-life set up from life. I was attracted by the shapes, it is always great to paint such bright yellow colors.   I am working on not covering all of the paper with watercolor, hopefully allowing certain areas to breathe. It is always a challenge to put the brush down. I wish everyone a wonderful week, I hope all of you are enjoying the end of Summer!

Left side of my painted with the old paint/ Right side painted with fresh professional grade watercolors This week I have been doing a little housekeeping. I replaced the paints in my Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketchers' Box which I use for my sketchbook with fresh replacements. I was feeling frustrated by the colors in my sketches, I couldn't achieve the brightness and values I wanted. I finally decided to clean the palette and start over with a clean slate. The sketch on the left was painted with the old palette, the one on the right with the new. I feel like it gained some luster. Fresh clean colors Presently I need to get back to painting. I have a few projects in development which I hope to share soon! Thanks for the visit!