New Work

I haven't been blogging much, but I have been painting quite a bit lately (yay!) Here is some of my recent work -

 "A Summer Day on Lake Pepin" - Watercolor and PanPastel (9 by 12)

 "Butterfly in Spring" - Watercolor (8 by 10)

"Sunset Petals" - Watercolor (5 by 7)

 "Fly II" - Watercolor (5 by 7)

"Mr. Kitty" - Watercolor (5 by 7) (My first animal/pet in watercolor!)

Untitled - Watercolor and PanPastel (5 by 7)

Some of these paintings are available in my Etsy shop and the others are just practice. If you'd like to keep up with my work, please follow me on Instagram - @angelasexpressions

Hope you all had a great weekend! xoxo

Remembrance V

For the past five years I have been painting an American flag in honor of the anniversary of September 11th. This is appropriately called "Remembrance V," done in watercolor. I hope you will keep those affected by the tragedy in your thoughts and prayers today. 

New Painting!

If you can believe it, I just finished a new watercolor painting! It's called "Almost There." This is my first watercolor painting in over a year, which is completely ridiculous. School keeps me so busy that there isn't much time for anything else but I've been trying to paint for at least an hour a day. I also recently finished a new miniature watercolor. It was a fun challenge. :)

I've been posting quite a bit to my Instagram page (@angelasexpressions) if you want to see more. :) Hope you all are well!!

Burst of Beauty

"Burst of Beauty" 8 by 10, Original Watercolor Painting

"Burst of Beauty" is my latest watercolor painting. I had some help from a Facebook friend with the title and I think it's perfect (Thanks Chris!). I couldn't resist painting that bold, detailed center. I also loved the color of the flower even though I did change it a bit. 

I used two different types of masking fluid for the center of the flower and when I peeled it off I couldn't help but notice that one caused the paper to yellow while the other did not. I used a Masquepen for the outside and Incredible White Mask on the center. I experienced the exact same thing on the previous painting. I either never noticed that the Masquepen caused yellowing before, or it's only happening now because the bottle is just about empty. In any case I'm going to make a mental note and see what happens when I open a new bottle. 

This fun painting is available for purchase in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested. :)

Sale Item for the Week

"Purple Whimsy" is this week's sale item on Etsy. Regularly $75 plus shipping but this week it's only $60 with free priority mail shipping. 

Have a great week!

Blooming White Rose

"Blooming White Rose" 8 by 10, Original Watercolor Painting

 

My latest watercolor painting is this beautiful white rose. I was drawn to the photo because of the contrast of the white flower and dark background, and shadows. I just loved everything about it, and I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

 

 It's available for purchase in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested.

 

Have a great weekend!

Purple Whimsy

"Purple Whimsy" 5 by 7, Original Watercolor Painting

 

"Purple Whimsy" is my latest painting. I originally thought the flower was a Cosmo, but now I'm not sure. In any case I was drawn to the photograph I used as a reference because of the soft purple petals. It was just so beautiful.

 

This painting is available for purchase in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested.

 

Have a great week!

May Lily

"May Lily" 5 by 7, Original Watercolor Painting

 

I finally got a good scan of this painting. I used my new light tent and I think I like it. I did a comparison between the light tent and the scanner. For making reproduction prints, the light tent is definitely the best.

 

This painting is available for purchase in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested.

 

Next, I think I'm going to work on some larger paintings. Maybe 16 by 20? Should be fun! :)

 



New Painting

I recently moved my "studio" up to my sewing room and have been painting a bit.

 

 My new set up. It's not my favorite place to work because of the lack of natural light, but it will work.

 

This is the watercolor painting I've been working on the past couple days. I overworked it a bit but it still came out quite nice. I will take a proper photo soon. I ordered a light tent for photographing art so I'm anxious to receive it and give it a try. :)



New Scripture Paintings

 "Fruit of the Spirit"

"Psalm 139:14"

 

I know there is nothing complicated at all about these scripture paintings, but I'm having a lot of fun with them. Doing the lettering, and masking it out is incredibly tedious, but I'm loving the outcome. "Fruit of the Spirit" is 12 by 16, and "Psalm 139:14" is 11 by 14. I want to do some even larger.

 

I was inspired to do these paintings from a love of wood signs done in a similar style. I was looking into making my own signs (which I still may do at some point) but got the idea to do paintings instead. I just love them. And they look spectacular framed. So, they can be more of an elegant addition to home decor, compared to a wood sign. It just all depends on what style you like.

 

Here's an example of one I framed for myself:

 

Anyway, I have prints available of all 3 of these paintings, and I will list some originals soon. I may even take some custom orders.

 

Hope you're having a great week!



New Watercolors

I've been having some fun with some new watercolors. I was somewhat inspired by all these wooden signs I saw on a recent trip to Duluth.

 A few watercolor cards I did to test out my new ideas. I may put some of these on Etsy.

I absolutely LOVE this painting! It's one of my favorite verses and I'm just so pleased with the way it turned out. Honestly, it doesn't look good on here at all. It was tough to take a good picture and then change the colors to get it to look as close to the original as possible (original watercolor paintings, or paintings in general, always look a lot better in person). This painting is 11 by 14, and I painted it for myself but I might make prints. I may even do another one to sell.

 

For a long time now I've been planning to make embroidered wall hangings with scripture, but I think I like this idea a lot better. Any excuse to paint. :)

 

I realize that this new style of work isn't exactly complicated or even considered "fine art," but I don't care. I really enjoy producing these types of paintings, and am happy to bring glory to God through my work. After all, this is a gift given to me by Him, no matter how small it might be. You can be sure to see many more of these in the future. :)

 

Have a great weekend!

Back in Bloom

"Back in Bloom" Original Watercolor, 5 by 7

 

If you can even believe it, I've finished a new watercolor painting! I started it about a week ago, and forgot to post a WIP photos. I thought I would ease back into painting slowly with a small piece (5 by 7) and with a subject that I'm comfortable with (flowers of course). I had so much fun working on this, even though I was slightly worried that it would be a disaster and that all my painting skills have gone out the window. I'm rather pleased with the way it turned out though. The pencil lines are a little dark though, and because of the fixative I used, I couldn't erase them. Oh well, now I know for next time. :)

 

This painting is available on Etsy if anyone is interested.

 

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Sale Item of the Week

"Beautifully Imperfect" is an original watercolor, size 8 by 10. It was my sale item of the week last week on Etsy and I've extended it for another week. The sale price is $80 (reduced from $95) and free shipping (for the U.S. only).

 

I love this piece and hopefully one of my watercolor collectors or a new one will claim this painting. :)

Beautifully Imperfect

"Beautifully Imperfect" - Watercolor Painting, 8 by 10

I've been working on this somewhat larger watercolor painting for the past few days. I think "Beautifully Imperfect" is a perfect title for this piece. Sometimes we artists only paint perfect and flawless pictures of nature, but we forget to include the imperfections. This rose was striking to me even with those discolorations and spots. In fact some of those spots were accidents, but they work with this piece.

This painting is available on Etsy.



Falling Hearts

"Falling Hearts" - Original Watercolor Painting - Size 5 by 7

I've been working on this painting the past couple days. It's not a mini, but it was supposed to be. I just thought it would be too difficult to do that small. I'm thinking about doing some larger paintings too. Perhaps some 8 by 10's 11 by 14's and maybe bigger! Eek! :) I'm not sure why I always paint so small. I guess it's because it's just easier with realism. But I want to branch out and try something new.

"Falling Hearts" is available on Etsy.

Purple Stripes - Mini Watercolor # 3

"Purple Stripes" - Mini Watercolor Painting

This cute little purple and white tulip is # 3 in my mini watercolor series. This one was a lot of fun. That purple was a lot of fun to mix up and is so pretty!

I was initially planning on doing 50 of these little paintings, but I'm not sure if I'm going to continue to do them or not. I'm enjoying them, but they don't scan well and I'm always disappointed by the way they look on the computer. I can't express enough how much better these look in person. That being said, I think I'll save these little ones for the gallery.

I do have plans to work on some larger watercolors and will hopefully begin working on them soon. The to-do list is just too long! :)

Have a great weekend!

Purple Fuschia - Mini Watercolor # 2

"Purple Fuschia" - Mini Watercolor Painting

Mini watercolor painting number 2 is complete! I so love Fuschia flowers and I have to do a larger painting of them at some point.

This is only the 2nd mini painting I've put up, but I'm very disappointed in how they appear on the computer screen. Scanning them and blowing them seems to take away their beauty. These look SO much better in person.

Anyway, I'm going to continue doing them and remember, they're only $15!

Have a great Friday!

Inside Look - Watercolor Mini #1

"Inside Look" - Mini Watercolor Painting

I'm finally starting that painting challenge/series. I'm calling it "50 Mini Watercolor Paintings for $15 each." I so love painting these little mini watercolors. They're 2 1/2" by 3 1/2 (artist trading card size). I just thought this would be a fun way to get back into my watercolors and these little paintings will make good studies for larger pieces.

At $15 each these are completely affordable! And what I love to do with these minis is to frame them with a big white mat.

Isn't that cute? The outer dimension of that mat is 8 by 10 (I have these for sale in my Etsy shop as well).

These little paintings will be available for purchase in my Etsy shop but we can make other arrangements if you don't have an Etsy account. Just send me an email at - angela292@hotmail.com

Have a lovely weekend!



Perfectly Pink

"Perfectly Pink" - Original Watercolor Painting, 5 by 7

I just completed my first watercolor painting of the year! Isn't that terrible? :) Although, I have done a handful of pastel paintings. I've been working on this painting for a few days and I can't tell you how good it felt to be using my watercolors! I simply have to make more time for painting even if it means getting up earlier or staying up later (which I have been doing). Painting is my one true love and quilting has been just taking over around here (but I enjoy that too).

This painting is available in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested. Meanwhile.. I'm still working on that painting challenge. I will post about that in a couple days! :)



Break Time

I am so happy to say that my finals are finished and I'm officially on break! I get a whopping 4 weeks off! Usually it's only 2, so I'll take it. :) I'm very much looking forward to getting a lot of painting and quilting done.

The other night I cleaned my watercolor palette and loaded it with fresh paint. Something about squeezing out that fresh pigment got me really excited! Ha ha. Just love that color! I've already got a drawing ready and some plans for a painting "challenge" maybe. Details to come!

Have a nice afternoon!