Winter Charm

Mmmm, the cake looks so tasty that I can eat it. 

Holiday Card Project

This year I'm participating in Holiday Card Project . The purpose of the project is to create physical holiday cards for people who are hospitalized during the holiday season, helping to bring a smile to the faces of those who may need some holiday cheer.

The cards will be distributed to both U.S. and international hospitals. Some cards will be delivered in-person in the areas of the respective hospitals, while other cards will be distributed by hospital staff members. The patients who receive the cards age in range from children to seniors, and have illnesses or injuries that vary from mild to terminal.

Everyone can participate. The Holiday Card Project accepts cards from all people who are willing to contribute to a good cause. The Project is a great way for schools, clubs, church groups, or family and friends to get together and work on a fun activity.

Below is my watercolor card

Little Jeanie

I don't use to draw a lot of human figures so this one was a real challenge for me. I decided to upload the painting although I see that the dress folds are not right. I guess the lines next to her right knee should go forward. With watercolors I suppose to start from the beginning or live with it. I decided to live with it for a while  .
The speed painting process of this picture is on YouTube

Finally Spring

Transformation from caterpillar to butterfly 

A Trap

 

Halloween Night

Complementary colors look very pleasing to human eye. That's why it is good to check out the color wheel before coloring the painting. This one was made with my favorite pair: blue and orange. For blue I used French ultramarine only, for orange part I used regular orange plus yellow ocher, burned umber and burned sienna. Black color was achieved by mixing burned umber and French ultramarine. To preserve white of the paper I masked the candle flame and nearby highlights.
First wash was done in wet in wet technique because it let me create soft edges between colors. The devil like shadow behind the mouse was created this way. With the next steps I gradually went darker and darker with details. The outside of the picture was painted with bold brush strokes softened occasionally with clear water. People naturally look for the light that's why in this composition I created tunnel like filling with the brightest element - the fire in the middle.
On my sketch below you can see that the mouse have different look. My daughter said that the mouse needs to be cute and she redesigned the head for me. My daughter is a cute expert so I decided to trust her. I love you Justyna :)

Peeking

I love painting mushrooms 

The Alps in Clouds

My painting was inspired by a fabulous photo gallery by Jose Antonio. If you would like to see more of the beautiful Switzerland mountains and historic sites go to the website.
When I was looking at the original photo, first thing I noticed was the low clouds and the mountain peaks above. That gives the scene an unusual look and dynamic. Most of us know how quickly such scene vanishes. Thanks to Jose - the author of this photo for sharing the moment with us. I wounder what happened next. The clouds went up and cleared the view or maybe quite opposite, they covered everything with a mist. In the high mountains you never know.
Because I'm painting with watercolors I left the white of the paper to represent the lightest parts of the clouds. Sticking to the rule "the less is more" I tried not to over do this part of the painting. I think I succeeded in this.

The painting process of this picture is on YouTube

Grand Teton

Morning Light

Stink Robo Bug

I have a feeling that each year there is more and more of stink bugs. They are the reason why we have so many pesticides on our food. The more of them you can destroy the fewer you will have to worry about next summer. The good thing is that the stink bugs are edible and the bad thing is, it will take several years for our birds to realize this.

Hermione and Sparrow

Here is Hermione from Harry Potter with abstracted hair. I started my painting with light sketch and masking fluid. The fluid has to be completely dry before painting so I waited for a while and painted this portrait in my head only. For the first wet wash I carefully put colors next to each other and let them mix on the paper. To do so I used four colors: phthalo blue, yellow ocher, burned umber, burned sienna and little bit of vermilion red. My black was achieved by mixing blue and umber and my white is a preserved color of the paper. The time lapse of this painting process is on YouTube

And here is an abstracted pumpkin and a little sparrow. I was visiting a local farm recently and I saw these vigorous birds everywhere. They are not very beautiful but because of their cheerful character I like them a lot.

Now some of my prints are available on Fine Art America

Lynx

Here is my lynx on the abstract background. Not too many years ago, I would never expect me do the abstract painting and be happy with it. The abstract like this can be created in just a few moments. We can call it beautiful or ugly depending on our mood and time of the day. When I'm looking back at my paintings, I can see that they are rather neat and well planed. I'd like to add more spontaneity to my paintings. I wonder if loosening my style will lead me to something good.

I videotaped the painting process. You can see it on YouTube

Kingfisher

This is my interpretation of Kingfisher, beautifully colorful hunter. Once, I saw this bird fishing at Chesapeake Bay. I can't forget this one of a kind experience and from that time I want to see more.
... and I want peace, PEACE on the earth. Too many bad things happening in the world right now

Some Artists Fly with Music

A vocalist amid the crowd is like a difference between Nightingale's and Sparrow's chirp and a passionate dancer among us is like a race horse surrounded by donkeys.

Lets enjoy talents.

Lost River SP

I just came back from my vacation at Lost River SP. Beautiful park, beautiful people. I led my first watercolor presentation there. It was fun experience. I think I'll do it again.

Prayer For Safe Travel

God's Angels guard and keep you

All the way that you must travel

Till earth's days are past

When blossoms fade and

Time is fleeting fast

In times of purest joy

Or pain and fear

God's Angels guard

And keep you safe.

Mroolon

This is a charcoal drawing of my cat Mroolon. The name is a combination of two words: "mrooo" which is our cat's vocal answer to everything we say, and "rulon" that in polish means tube. Mroolon looks like that when he lays down. He is a sweetheart and good a companion.

The drawing was done from the photograph I took while the cat enjoyed a sunset at the backyard. A smudging property of charcoal gives the cat dirty appearence which reminds me how he looked when I found him. 

Gladiolas

Gladioli in my garden are in full bloom. I enjoy them a lot because they have all possible colours. Unfortunatly we have a lot of inclement weather leatly and wind is banding some of these tall flowers down. They are ending as decoration in my home.

The drawing of gladiolas was done with color pencils on beidge tinted paper.

Loch Raven

Loch Raven is a largest water reservoir for Baltimore. My family and I often visit this place. On weekends a road along the lake is closed for motor vehicles and it is our favorite spot to walk, bike or roller-skate. When we're tired of the bitten path, there are beautiful trails throughout the woods there too. In case we're lazy we simply sit near the shore and watch birds. Sometimes because of a drought, the water level is so low that we can walk to this small island.
In my painting a fog is covering the other shore of the lake. The fog can make this place really enchanted and simplify my composition a lot :)

Blooming Summer

When I was a kid I used to spend my Sumner vacation with my relatives at villages near Krakow in Poland. To get there I had to take a train and then a bus. After jumping out of the bus, the first thing I always noticed were the wild flowers in the meadows. With their various colors they welcomed me to the back country paradise. 

For a long time I didn't know why farmers didn't like poppy flowers blooming on their fields and why called them weeds.  I recently learnt why. If poppy seeds mixed up with corn seeds, the flour would have yellowish tint and it gets rotten faster. Lately I haven't seen any weeds in the crops. I guess now we have herbicides that completely eliminate all wild plants. Well, I miss them a lot.

Last year my neighbor gave me a small poppy plant and this year I had my first poppy flower in my garden. I was so happy to watch it develop its bud and finally bloom. I took a few pictures, sketched, and painted it with watercolors. The original painting was sent to Poland to my dear cousin who has the same admiration for these wild flowers as I do.

The painting process is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84uHkM_EBUA 

If you'd like to paint it too you can copy my sketch. Happy painting

Soft Like Summer Rain

During memorial day weekend, besides the traditional barbecuing and enjoying the gorgeous weather – I drew. Using soft pastels, I made 3 portraits from photos. I was thinking about drawing from life but everyone was too busy to pose.
The last and 4^th portrait I sketched with charcoals. I found the photo of a beautiful model girl in a Cosmopolitan magazine. She was advertising Vidal Sassoon. Because I mentioned the source of my reference photo and because I’m not making any money on it, I shouldn't have a problem posting it here (it's for educational purposes only).
I like how I left the tanned colored paper untouched so that it imitates the girl’s skin tone. Incorporating the color of the paper into the subject saved me a lot of time. I was simply drawing the shaded areas with black and the highlights with white.

I felt so guilty that I was drawing from someone else's photograph that I had to add something completely mine to this post. Wild hare charcoal painting from my own photograph. 

Pastel Finger Painting

This is the portrait of my friend's mom, done in soft pastels on colored paper. I was painting it from old black and white photograph. I'm pretty happy with the outcome especially I like her hair. I was painting them with my fingers and it was such a joyful experience. I like to paint more hair, maybe my dog -Shetland sheepdog will be my next model. See you soon.

Yosemite

Yosemite National Park is a place of great beauty. I was very fortunate to have a chance to visit it. The view of tall granite walls, waterfalls, trees, meadows and wildlife give joy to every guest.
I took a lot of pictures there. Now I'm using them as reference photos to my paintings.
I like the top painting better. The colors are vibrant and trees have much better shapes. I remember us walking down the bridge to dip our bare feed in the cool water. After long hike this place was great for restoring our energy.  

Wintry Creek

Today in Maryland we had a beautiful, warm and sunny Saturday. I went hiking in Gunpowder State Park. There was a lot of ice and snow on north side of the mountains, but on the sunny side all snow was gone making the trails muddy and slippery. So my family and I went off the impassible trail and trekked through the woods. We climbed the hill and sat up high on the rocks and looked down at the river below.

My watercolor painting keeps me in a wintry mood. The warm colors of the sunrise indicate the meltdown of snow.  Old, brown grass will soon turn green and the first flowers will bloom. I'm ready for new season.

Longing for Spring

White wolf on a cold winter day

I love snow days. They are like unexpected gifts. Here you are: suddenly I had plenty of free time and I could do whatever I felt like. I enjoyed every minute of it. I was watching my friends on Facebook. I photographed my daughter playing outside and Mr. Snowman she built. I was watching Olympic Games. Gee! These athletes are so fit and fearless. Congrats to Justyna Kowalczyk for the golden medal in 10K classical-style race. I cooked dinner and enjoyed the company of the whole family at the table. Then we went for a long walk with our dog. And I finally painted the wolf.
Oh, I also wasted some time playing Candy-crush. I quickly move up 3 levels. I can't figure out how to give up playing this stupid game.

During snow days we don't forget about wild animals. Especially birds which are the most vulnerable. To survive the cold weather they need to eat and unfortunately all the  grass where they can find seeds is covered under snow.

Misty Castle

Winter storm Janus gave me two snow days. I wasn't able to go to work because the roads were terribly slippery. So I enjoyed my warm home, my kids and my painting. From time to time I love to paint something unreal. A fantasy world without any references to real life. 

 I began by drawing it in my sketchbook then I used watercolors. I knew I'd like to see the road around the tall castle walls leading somewhere to the main gate. The mist from the moat was perfect for separating the foreground and the background. Yellow touches around the windows added liveliness. The feeling of someone's presence within the cold and harsh walls. The rest of my painting contains different tones of gray - the color of a foggy morning.

The wagon under the bare tree is the main point of interest. The viewer begins to wonder where this character is going and what his or her life looks like.

Yellow Hut

It has been raining for 3 days now in Maryland. All the snow unfortunately is gone but, not on my paintings. Here is a lose watercolor sketch of a wintry scene.

To paint this picture I used my 2 favorite colors: ultramarine blue and burned yellow. Mixed together they gave me all kinds of gray tones. In the middle of this image I placed the hut. It has a roof covered in snow and a cheerful smoke slowly rising from the chimney. The yellow color on the gray background is very powerful. It is hard not to notice the house partially hidden behind the spruce. I added yellow grass to balance the color of the house and to brighten the moody landscape. 

Winter Mountains

This is a watercolor version of my previous pencil sketch. I made a quick video from painting process. You can see it on  YouTube

It's snowing now on the East Coast and everything is turning white. Since everyone is safe at home, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.