blues + gold

© JANE MINTER

"blues + gold"

watercolour wash 

grey + turquoise

© JANE MINTER

"grey + turquoise"

watercolour wash 

NIVEA

© JANE MINTER

"NIVEA"

watercolour study painted from life 

back to exploring blue washes ...still life study of a blue tin of Nivea Cream.

portrait sketch #1

© JANE MINTER

portrait sketch #1

pencil sketch A4

..wanted to share my progress with portrait practice ...a free-hand pencil sketch of my grandmother  working from an old  black and white photo  ...I'm struggling but at the same time I'm enjoying just taking time to focus on portraits and sketch ...consuming lots of 8B pencils.

blue rabbit

"blue rabbit "
© JANE MINTER

Canson Fontenay
32 x 41 cm

watercolour  painted from life

another toy study ....a still life of  "blue rabbit"  a  favorite soft toy of my daughters .

orange spinning top

"spinning top i "
© JANE MINTER

watercolour sketch painted from life 

canson montval 

24 x 32cm 

"spinning top ii "
bird's eye view 
© JANE MINTER

watercolour sketch painted from life 

canson montval 

24 x 32cm 

....."childhood memories" i was given this very small timber orange spinning top as a child in turn both my daughters have played with it ..i found it yesterday so made quite a few quick sketches ..here are a couple of initial sketches  not sure if they look like a spinning tops but exploring the movement with washes ...still love watching it spin.

bacche rosse - red chokeberries

© JANE MINTER
"bacche rosse i" 
red chokeberry
aronia arbutifolia

initial watercolour study  

painted from life

© JANE MINTER
"bacche rosse ii"
brilliant red chokeberries
aronia arbutifolia brilliantissima

WIP initial loose watercolour wash 

painted from life 

.....here are a couple of watercolour studies of  choke chokeberries "bacche rosse"  painted from life before Christmas .

antique iron iii - chimney iron - charcoal iron

© JANE MINTER

"chimney iron" 

antique iron iii

30.5 x 45.5 cm 
Fabriano 300g/m2
watercolour study painted from life 


.....posting another study of an antique iron  the last of the three antique irons .... the "chimney  iron"  has a  practical design but looks quite perculiar with the funnel. 

antique iron ii - box iron - charcoal iron

"charcoal iron" or "box iron"
 © JANE MINTER
antique iron ii 
30.5 x 45.5 cm 
Fabriano 300g/m2

initial watercolour study painted from life  

garlic - aglio

"garlic i"

© JANE MINTER

garlic head watercolour study 

30 x 34 cm Fabrinano

"garlic ii" 

© JANE MINTER

garlic gloves watercolour wash 

32 Xx 41cm Canson Fontenay

...a couple of watercolour  still life studies painted  from life  ...should have reserved more of the whites in the garlic head "garlic i"  .... might add some white ...some garlic heads are  quite brown ... broke the garlic head and made a quick and simple wash  "garlic ii" using the same palette and working on a much smoother paper . 

antique iron i - cast iron flat iron

© JANE MINTER

"cast iron  flat iron" 

"No 8"

Fabriano 300g/m2
watercolour study painted from life

 30.5 x 45.5cm

....watercolour study of a simlple cast iron "flat iron"  or "sad iron" ....a beautiful object in it's own right .
Flat irons can been seen in both paintings of
 Edgar Degas Women at Work "Women Ironing"  19th century and  Picasso's "Woman Ironing" 1904.

mountain sketch

 © JANE MINTER  

"Prealps" 

 Plein Air watercolour sketch

New Years Day 2012 

Fabriano 300g/m2

....posting my first sketch of the New Year and wishing everyone a Happy and creative 2012 ! 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

" H A P P Y   C H R I S T M A S " 




WISHING YOU ALL 
A VERY 
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!


tanti auguri
JANE 




BUON NATALE 
© JANE MINTER 2011

blogger award - special thankyou to Irina

My blogger friend Irina Ирина Рехвиашвили  awarded me with "The Verstile Blogger" a while back please have a look at both Irina's art and photography blogs  Irina painting and stuff  .... as part of the award I have to  pass the award on and highlight 15 bloggers and their blogs ..a belated thankyou Irina !
as part of the award I also have to include 7 facts about me


I pass the award  of  "The Versatile Blogger Award"  on to  the following wonderful 15 bloggers and artists :


Junkar's Cardesin's  The creative bug
Jeanette Jobson's ILLUSRATED LIFE
Neomi Gonzàlaez's  Pintar Acuarela
Fernando's blogs    http://watercolorspainting.com/ and  http://acuarelas-fernandopena.blogspot.com/
Carlo's  DIBULOS - Calos Leon Salzar
Jala's blog Jala pfaff
Rhonda's WATERCOLOURS AND WORDS
Sandra's Sandraws
Lucinda's Colbalt Violet
Tito's Blu Oltremare
Jamilia Alladin's Passion for Art
Sue's A BRUSH WITH COLOUR
Javi's blog http://acuablog-javi.blogspot.com/
Hilda's blog http://hildasnaturblogg.blogspot.com/
Jean Haines Watercolour with life http://watercolourswithlife.blogspot.com/
Jean has started great monthly challenges ..the Christmas challenge sounds fun !

7 facts about me :

...I'm a Piscean ... I love water
..."less is more"  .... one of my favorite quotes
... one of my favorite watercolour books I've read this year is  "Painting from the Heart" by Barbara Nechis.
 ...it's been a wonderful experience this year to be invited as a parent and volunteer to both of my daughters schools  to give "art lessons in English"  - to 6/7 year olds and 12/13 year olds.
...one of the most exciting things to happen to me this year as a result of my exhibition was to be asked to teach watercolours here in Italy .
...Wish I could go back to UK more often ....it was a treat to see David Poxon's Watercolours at the Mall Galleries in November . "Pots" is an incredible painting .... the exhibition Discerning Eye was fascinating ...here is a link to read more.  http://www.discerningeye.org/exhibition/gallery/gallery.php?filter=POXON%2C+David
 I'd love to see this collective watercolour exhibition if we were in UK over Christmas .... " The Magic of Watercolour", an exhibition at Christmas , London . I've recently discovered Geoffrey Wynne's blog who is one of the  artist exhibiting ...here's a link to Geoffrey's site , a few of his superb paintings and details of the exhibition.  http://geoffreywynne.blogspot.com/2011/12/london-at-magic-of-watercolour_4236.html
...I've been enjoying  designing Christmas Cards for the last couple of weeks.

Thanks again Irina !

pandoro

© JANE MINTER

"pandoro"

"christmas tree"

watercolour sketch

montval  canson
24 x 32 cm

© JANE MINTER
"pandoro"
"golden bread"
WIP 
montval  canson
24 x 32 cm


....with Christmas in mind......a couple of quick sketches /ideas of pandoro which is a traditonal Italian sweet yeast bread  popular at Christmas time and New Year . Both sketches are from memory ....the top sketch hopefully gives the idea of a pandoro cut in the form of a "Christmas tree" with the star sections - one on top of each other dusted with icing sugar ...the bottom sketch shows a simple pandoro covered with icing sugar which is meant to resemble the snowy peaks of the Italian Alps

100 +

© JANE MINTER

"100 +"  

watercolour washes 

fabrinano 300g/m2

recent watercolour washes / swatches carrying on from 100 washes challenge ...hooked.

dog portrait - initial study

© JANE MINTER
"nina" 

golden retriever

dog portrait 

watercolour study
32 x 41cm Fabriano 

....wanted to share one of my first attempts of  a dog portrait ....I painted this study about five years ago ,  with the initial "wet in wet" wash adding some detail "wet in dry" , at the time I took the advice of a good friend and  artist to leave it as it was at this stage and just enjoy it as it was   ....so it was left unfinished without adding darks and further details  ...the owner of nina loved  this initial study so much  I gave it as a present to her.
 I have recently been looking at old portraits and pet portraits studies and sketches as i've decided to take a "portrait course" with London Art College  ....hope to post a few of the exercises  ... busy drawing eggs at the moment ! ..the portrait course will be a difficult challenge for me.  

cat

 "cat"

 watercolour study

32 x 41cm

.......this week's watercolour lesson inspired by Marina Macolin. 

Vote for your favourite Wash Paintings on 100 Wash Challenge

To Vote for your favorite WASH paintings from ONE HUNDRED WASH CHALLENGE
 http://onehundredwashes.blogspot.com/2011/11/vote-for-your-favourite-wash-painting.html

here's an extract from Maggie's post  :

By now you all know that our journey with 100 Washes is over, and I would like to thank all the participating artists and all our followers who have left encouraging comments throughout the year.

It has been a wonderful journey for Jane, Olivia, Theresa, Vandy, Christy, Suzanne and myself who took part in this challenge, and I know many of us are continuing our washes journey on our own blogs.........................

..........The poll will be open for voting until December 31^st 2011, after which I will tally up the votes and each voters name will go into a hat and the lucky name pulled out will receive fourteen greeting cards (two winning images from each blog participant) showcasing the wash paintings with the highest number of votes.

All blog participants and followers/blog readers may vote, but only followers/readers will be entitled to win the set of greeting cards.......

Happy voting !

My best wishes to everyone and happy voting!

Maggie

To Vote:

http://onehundredwashes.blogspot.com/2011/11/vote-for-your-favourite-wash-painting.html

Watercolour Exhibition in Verona

 "Ponte Pietra"

Verona

L'Acquerello Oggi AIA

Collectiva AIA ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA ACQUERELLISTI

Museo MINI SCALCHI ERIZZO di VERONA

12 - 27 Novembre 2011

Sunday 27th November was the last day of AIA's www.acquerello-aia.it collective watercolour exhibition in Verona  -  L'Acquerello Oggi AIA
It was good to have the chance to visit Verona at the weekend and see the exhibition . I especially enjoyed seeing a few blogger friends work on display ... you can see photos of the exhibition and their paintings on their links below.

Jane True Colour's http://jane-truecolors.blogspot.com/2011/11/mostra-al-museo-miniscalchi-erizzo.html
Floriana Quani AQUALUNGA  http://rossoriso.blogspot.com/2011/10/aiutooo.html

It was also the first time I've seen actual paintings of two artists work I admire Lughi Meregalli and Lughi Zucchero
Lughi Meregalli http://www.luigimeregalli.com/  - there are several photos of the exhibition and Lughi Meregalli demonstrating at the exhibition on his facebook page http://www.facebook.com/luigi.meregalli
Lughi Zucchero 's http://acquerellidizucchero.blogspot.com/

There where many other beautiful watercolours from abstract to botanical.

white sheet - watercolour course

"white sheet"

32 x 41cm

watercolour course

inspired by "step by step" of Marina Marcolin

posting  my  painting  from this week's watercolour lesson with Marina Marcolin working from a photo in a 2 hour session ..... "wet in wet"  "wet on dry" 

single rose bud

© JANE MINTER

"single rose bud" 
watercolour study

32 x 41 cm  Canson Fontenay

a simple watercolour study of one of the last rose buds .... painted from life with no initial pencil sketch .

chestnuts - castanea

© JANE MINTER

"chestnuts"

castanea

watercolour sketch

© JANE MINTER

"chestnuts"

castanea

watercolour sketch  
painted from life  - section of painting above

walnut tree - initial watercolour wash

© JANE MINTER

"walnut tree "

 initial watercolour  wash 

Arches 300g/m
 WIP 

more walnuts  ....enjoying the freedom of painting  just  watercolour washes ... painting from life , no pencil ...the colours seems even brighter with the continious  rain and grey skies ..paper is still wet so it will dry alot lighter.... "wet on dry"  "wet in wet" .   

leaf sketches - walnut leaf

© JANE MINTER

" walnut leaf " 

watercolour study 

a simple quick watercolour study of a single leaf  no pencil " wet on dry"  "wet in wet " 

© JANE MINTER

"walnut leaves"

watercolour sketch

another quick sketch no pencil ...initial wash .  

walnuts - noci

© JANE MINTER

"walnuts"

noci

Canson  Fontenay

 32 x 41 cm 

watercolour study painted from life 

.....the walnuts are falling from our trees ....  this is one of  a few studies I painted before hulling them . 

nespola - nesploe - medlar fruit

© JANE MINTER

"nespola" 

medlar fruit 

300g / m 2 Fabriano

watercolour study  painted from life 

© JANE MINTER
"nespole" 

medlar fruit 

300g / m 2 Fabriano

watercolour study  painted from life 

 medlar fruit

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mespilus_germanica

umbrella

"umbrella"

 38 X 48 cm Arches 300g/m2

inspired by Marina Macolina "step by step"  

...sharing my painting from this week's watercolour lesson with Marina Macolin.   

hydrangea

© JANE MINTER

"hydrangea" 

32 x 41cm Canson Fontenay

watercolour study painted from life

watercolour wash # 100

© JANE MINTER

watercolour wash # 100 

"counting"
" a section of  my daughter's abacus" 
painted may 2010

http://onehundredwashes.blogspot.com/

Posting my last watercolour wash  # 100  ! ...from the  ONE HUNDRED WASHES CHALLENGE http://onehundredwashes.blogspot.com/  .... a huge thankyou to my fellow "washers"  Maggie ,Suzanne ,Theresa, Olivia ,Vandy and Christy .... I feel as if I've only just started this challenge ...will miss all of  you.  I hope there will be a similiar challenge in the future.  


A very special thankyou to Maggie Latham who had the initial idea for this challenge ,setting  it up and bringing us together as a group on this joint challenge ..it's been so inspiring and I have learnt so much with you all  ...wishing Maggie all the very best for her new personal challenge of 1000 Washes.