"Cherry Kiss" Demo for Thursday evening watercolor class

This was the demo for class Thursday night. The lesson was to have fun with a background and drop lots of different colors in while the paper was still wet and let them run together.  My first background wash turned out great, but dumb me...and I told my students never to do this....I went back and tried to change a little area I didn't like.  Of course I totally messed up the wash.  So, worked on the cherries in class and then redid the background this morning.   "Cherry Kiss" 9" x 11" on Arches 300# cold press.

"Surface Tension" watercolor work-in-progress

Day two of what I hope isn't too many more.  Must be finished by February 29th for a show... and that doesn't give me any time to have it professionally photographed.  Wish I had started sooner!  I'm going to slip it into a mat and frame I already have.  "Surface Tension" watercolor full-sheet 22" x 30" Arches cold press.

Watercolor Class demo....plumeria

Taught 4 classes this week.  Thursday evening, Friday morning and afternoon, and Saturday morning.  First day was the red apples, second plumeria and Saturday was pears.  It is so gratifying when a student has a breakthrough.  One gal was just laughing and giggling as she was able to do something she had never done before.  I love teaching.  Never thought I would.  I had to laugh.  Everyone asked...How do I paint white?  They couldn't imagine how they were going to do it without white paint. They were amazed to learn how many colors there really are in something that looks only white that they hadn't seen.    I mentioned on Facebook that Tom Lynch stopped by my class.  I said that he smiled when I asked if he wanted to take the class.  He was smiling, but actually it was more like he laughed :-} He was there checking out the space for a future class of his. What a thrill for my students to get to meet him.

Caution Wet Paint. Today's class demo

Today's lesson for my class was to attempt a simple plain wash for a background, use frisket to create spots on the apples,  blend colors wet-in-wet right on the paper, and let the background (shadow) and object meld together rather than having a cut-out look of an apple just separate from the background.  Work-in-progress. Watercolor on Arches 300# cold press  15" x 11"  Oh, and how fortuitous.  It's red!  Tomorrow is plumeria. Saturday is pears.

Great watercolor students at Venus Studios Art Space

It was a beautiful day and a couple husbands couldn't understand why someone would rather paint than play golf :-}  It was a great class.  Everyone worked really hard.  They're all coming back for more. In fact several of them have signed up for three out of the four classes next week.  It's gonna be a busy week.  I teach 4-6  classes every week at Venus Studios Art Space: 74050 Alessandro, Palm Desert, CA.  The schedule is on my website http://dianemorganpaints.com/collections/43797