Blog about tribulations of Danielle Beaulieu watercolor journey

Sending your works into the world

2/27/2021 7:21:03 AM

If any novice artist would ask me about sending their artworks into the world, not that I'm an expert, here are a few tips I would give them:

Make quality art. Quality never goes out of style.
Use archival material. Provide the best supplies that you can to your art collectors.
Make it personal. Whatever the topic, give it your own spin.
Make if from the heart. Create it in a caring and loving way.
Share your vision. Share your dreams.

Here is my latest painting. After last week's mishap, I'm so relieved that I was able to recover this painting. Here it is with the old window frame. I'm calling it "Spring Thaw", unless someone comes up with a catchier title.

Spring Thaw - 35" X 28.5"

I'm working on another water themed painting then I'm looking forward to painting some rust. That's unless I change my mind.

Have you seen the two new workshops that I'll be teaching for Art for Affect? One will be about an old Provence Window that is typical of that region with it's many sunflower fields. Yes, they have more than lavender in that region. During the second workshop in April, participants will learn how to paint white objects (aka teacups) and making them appear 3D.

Have a great week,

Danielle

p.s., have you subscribed to my Newsletter?

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Excited for my upcoming series of workshops

2/21/2021 8:19:22 AM

I'm excited for next week's watercolour workshop. We'll start painting one of two very interesting photos. The first includes Adirondack chairs that cast beautiful long shadows. During this session we'll not only add unusual colours to the shadows, I'll start teaching more about creating interesting compositions. Composition is necessary when artists want to use their own photos as reference material. The term composition refers to the combination of all elements in the artwork, including; visual elements, mood, light, shadow and in some cases emotional elements. On the other hand the term composition can simply just refer to how the subject matter of the painting, photograph or drawing is arranged.

If you are interested in taking your painting to the next level, why not consider signing up for this workshop from my website.

I'm also excited about my next workshops since I've bought a new document camera that will give participants excellent images when I'm demonstrating and I can zoom in to show details.

Here is the painting that I completed during my last demo. It is about 11" X 14".

It turned out to be a lot more effort than expected, but then some participants have expressed that it enabled them to develop their self confidence to paint on their own. Note that I taught them all the necessary techniques to complete it. Maybe that was the unplanned goal of my last workshop since we didn't complete any of the flowers during our weekend sessions.

That's why for my next workshops, I vowed to slow down. We are also tacking more challenging subjects and learning other things.

Stay tuned for two (2) more upcoming fun 3-hour weekend workshops for Art For Affect that should be public within a week. When they will be posted I'll send out a newsletter to tell you about them.

Latest Painting

I'm still working on my large winter scene. Every day I think that this is the day that I'll get it done, but no. A few days ago, I had an unfortunate accident when one of my two cats spilled two large contains for water on my painting. Luckily with my experience I knew what to do to save it and I had to repaint all of the trees on the top right, some of the rocks and snow areas. The rest of this weekend, I need to get ready for next weekend and the two other upcoming workshops to be announced. In any event, here is where my painting is at now. I still have shrubs on the right hand side to complete.

And did I tell you that I've also been invited to teach for the Kanata Art Club? Check out their website as I hear that the class is almost full.

Have a great week,

Danielle

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Knowledge Holding You Back or Not

2/14/2021 7:53:50 AM

Have you ever considered that knowledge can hold you back? Some people have come to depend on the knowledge they are accumulating - applying an even wash, ensuring no blooms, ensuring there is sufficient contrast, etc. yet they struggle to get their paintings to the next level. I don't dispute that technical knowledge is required to produce better paintings. That knowledge is necessary to give us the confidence artists needs. However, that knowledge sometimes needs to be kept in the artist's back pocket to allow the magic of letting go to happen.

The artists I admire have an incredible amount of technical knowledge but often times they seem to paint intuitively and don't over analyze what they are doing. They don't even realize what they are doing. It's like riding a bike, you don't think of the mechanics of moving your legs, maintaining your balance, you just ride it and enjoy yourself. This is called unconscious competence and is often sited as the fourth stage of learning.

To get to this stage where everything seems easy, an artist must first acquire the required skills and practice to master them. This stage is called the conscious competence. There are countless theories on how many hours of practice is required to master a skill, including watercolours. What is important to consider is that the transition from one stage to another is seamless. The more an artist who has acquired important techniques practices, the more they will be able to be less conscious of them and appear to paint intuitively.

New Workshop (update, this workshop is FULL)

Yesterday afternoon I posted one of my new workshops. This one is to paint rustic doors we see in Europe. You can find more details here: https://www.daniellebeaulieuwatercolours.com/workshop/26673/online-4-week-workshop-doors-of-europe

Note that there were only five spots remaining when I published this blog and that I will not be running a second session on Sundays of this workshop.

New Painting

This past week, I finally had the opportunity to dedicate some time to my big painting of a creek and beautiful reflections on the snow. Most of my painting time was spent absorbed in painting the water. First I played with different colours and mixes to ensure they felt right. Then I started painting the rocks by the shore. I've only just begun the trees. I should have plenty of time to paint in the coming week, since I don't teach for another two weeks.

Above is also a small photo of the lilac I am teaching this weekend.

Have a great week

Danielle

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Where to start...

2/5/2021 9:14:03 PM

For any works, the creator always asks himself or herself "where to start?"

Apparently when Michelangelo painted the "Last Judgment", he started with the face of every figure then passed on the lesser elements to his assistants. Alternatively, some artists like Cezanne advocated for an "all at once" approach. Many other well know artists start with the centre of interest, then work around it till the painting is finished. There is probably no right way of "where to start".

I tend to start my paintings with the centre of interest or the most challenging part of the painting when the subject and approach allow for this. We have to recognize that in watercolours, the medium might dictate where we start.

By starting with the most difficult area, I am fresh and most enthusiastic about my painting. As this section advances, my sixth sense kicks in and "I know" if the painting will meet my level of satisfaction. If yes, my confidence builds to finish the painting with the same level of attention as the most challenging section.

Here are two of my watercolours that were certainly a challenge to paint. For each of these, I first painted the larger pieces of glasses and strings of glasses that are in the front.

Chandelier - 11" X 14"

Lights On - 14" X 11"

Here is a smaller painting I experimented with earlier this week. It is of a local farm house. The real house doesn't have a stone exterior, however, I wanted to practice painting this stones.