Rose Stems Watercolor

Today I'd like to feature a watercolor I have for sale on Etsy. 15"x22" in size, this painting is half an entire sheet of Arches watercolor paper.

"Rose Stems" -

Here are some details of the painting:

This painting was done in 2012 and features an extreme closeup of the stems, leaves, and the bottoms of pink rose petals of a few flowers in a rose bouquet. I chose to focus on the stems and leaves rather than the typical flower viewpoint to showcase parts of the plant that are often overlooked because they aren't as "beautiful." I wanted to show that there is still beauty in the lines and arcs of the stems and leaves, even though we often neglect to notice.

As with most of my artwork, this painting was created by looking at a source photograph I took of a rose bouquet. I played up the contrast by darkening the shadows so that it seems as if the roses are stepping out of the darkness and into the light. Several times larger in size than a real rose would be, the scale of the painting also adds to the drama.

This is for sale through my Etsy store.

Hydrangea Photos

When I'm in a garden, or my own backyard, or I've just received a bouquet of flowers, or I find myself within the vicinity of a floral display and a camera (whether that's my phone or something fancier), I take photos. Often lots of photos.

I take photos of the same plant from 10 different angles. If it's a bouquet or potted plant (and thus portable), I carry it around my house to different rooms with different lighting, and photograph them everywhere. If it's at my house and I can see the plant over the course of different days, I photograph them a little bit each day, at different times of day, at different stages of the plant's growth. I take close-up photos and ones from far away

I use these photos for myriad types of artwork, from watercolor or acrylic paintings to colored pencil drawings, from highly saturated works to black-and-white or muted color pieces. I don't know what exactly I might use a photo for at the time that I take it, so I take several varieties, so I have a bunch of options to work with.

The result is that I end up with tons of photographs, many of which I'll never use. For example - my husband brought me home a small pot of hydrangeas about a week ago, and in that week I've taken 61 pictures of them, all on my phone. I see them every day - they're on the desk right next to me as I type this - and when I think of it, when I think "it's been several hours since I took a photo of them," I'll go ahead and take more. I don't know what I'll use them for in the future, but now I have them in my "stock" of photos, so that if I do need an image of a hydrangea, I have one.

Especially with creating art, I want to be careful to always use my own source photography. If I use someone else's photograph, it's a lot harder to say that the resulting artwork is completely mine - and a lot easier to get in trouble for inadvertently violating someone else's creative copyright.

Dramatic Sky

This 11"x15" watercolor is a loosely painted, high-contrast depiction of a stormy sky.

"Dramatic Sky" 11"x15" Watercolor Painting on Paper
Andrea Arbit

Purchase "Dramatic Sky" through my Etsy shop!

The color palette is dark blues and greens, offset by moments of light yellow-green and the white paper.

"Dramatic Sky" Watercolor - Detail

I think it almost looks like a Rorschach inkblot, with its nearly symmetrical composition, but maybe you find something different in these dark, stormy clouds.

Like other 11"x15" artworks I recently put up on Etsy (and blogged about here), this painting is also only $99. It was painted for my Watercolor II studio class in 2008.