Good Tidings of Great joy!

Joy!

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy......

Luke 2:10

The Littlest Angel!

Christmas is coming and I wanted to share with you one of my Christmas angels.  This one was painted for a Chrismtas card.

I wanted a contrast between the starry sky and the bright angel.  So, I used a deep blue (Windsor Blue) for the sky and placed in drops of white to indicate stars after the sky was completely dry.  The angel wings and robe were painted wet on wet using a very pale Paynes Gray for shadows and a little bit of yellow on the wings.

The redbird on the branch was added as a sign of hope.....with the angel anticipating the birth of the Christ child!

May each of you experience the hope of Christmas and the best Christmas present ever---God's gift of Christ!

Merry Christmas!

 

Let it Snow!

Since so many parts of the United States have recently experienced a large snow, I thought it would be appropriate to have a snowman on the blog today. Nothing brings to mind Christmas and winter more than snow. This friendly little snowman was painted for my Chirstmas cards and he is quite easy to paint with a limited palette.

The background and foreground were painted first using a wash of Windsow Blue with deeper blue in the sky area and a light wash in the foreground. While the paint was still wet, I dropped in large grains of sea salt to create the snowflakes both in the sky and in the foreground. I let this dry before painting the snowman.

The snowman was painted wet on wet using a very pale Windsor Blue - just enough to make shadows. The rest of the snowman (hat, details, etc.) was painted after the body was completely dry.

I finished up with a "spatter" of white to make some additional snow on his hat and in the deep blue sky!

So, if you are like me and live where you have not had the pleasure of a snow - yet, paint a snowman---it is almost as much fun as making one AND much warmer!

Winter's Hope

Winter's Hope

The painting above titled, Winter's Hope, is another holiday season painting. Although this tree is standing alone in a winter snow storm, we see a small splash of red - a small bird on a branch. This hope of love and life depicted by the redbird on the limb reminds me of the holiday season and the love and hope given to us by Jesus' birth.

This painting is a simple sketch of a tree. The tree was masked off. I used masking tape rather than liquid masking fluid because of the large size of my tree. This was painted on 11 x 14 paper. My favorite part of this painting was the background. I painted wet on wet with a base of clean water. Blues were washed in and a drop or two of brunt umber. I sprinkled in a little salt to make my snow flakes. I like the way the salt miraculously paints the snow.

Perhaps because I live in the South, I love snow. We don't have many days with snow in the winter, so I have to enjoy snow however I can....so I paint it!

Enjoy the holidays and don't forget to take time to paint!