What a treat

Last Sunday finished the planting season for wheat and now we are watching a green fuzzy carpet come up where the ground once lay bare. This is my girl in the drill during lunch break. She had to have one more play in the seed before it went gone gone.

I was lucky enough to be granted a scholarship to go to Quartz Mountain Art institute. We worked for four days on making art. I learned from great artist and met old and new friends. We had a blast laughing together and working til dark thirty making wonderful art.

Well dark is coming and the chores are not done. I will show you more painting next week.

God Bless.

Cluttered Overload

Hove you ever been there? I had A few days off from work and my fun was to paint and finish the combine. My girl and I got into the studio yesterday afternoon. Early enough that I could get a lot done and I could not even turn around. I know it is fall but I had to spring clean.

Yanking everything out into the yard I went through it and trashed a lot of stuff. Also I decided I would finally put some sticky tiles in to my my floor work better. Well  painting may have to wait but my room will be a whole lot nicer to work in. Sometime life just bucks a little. Cinch down and hold on, the ride will at least be worth bragging about later.

God Bless

Planting Fever

All the farmers I know have caught it. Symptoms include the hurry-up-and-get-it-done attitude, staying out late, dusty clothes, and if rain comes the pace-your-house-til-the-field-dries-out.  Don't worry if farming does not run in your blood than don't worry because you can't catch it.

Around here planting fever comes around winter wheat season but I hear it hits other areas during different planting times during a year. The nice part comes in about two weeks (if we are lucky and without break downs) the fever breaks and life returns to normal, as normal as a farmer's life can be.

Well I did steal a little time away to work in my studio  I add the wheat in the forground and made it get smaller as it got further back. This is turning out cool.

I added some washes to help set the tone down but it made a mess. Well let it dry and think about how to fix. All mistakes lead to success with time.

God Bless.

Working on the combine I need really good references. These were taken on a sunny day. They are close ups of the same machine that my husband is running in the painting I am working on.

This on would be great for reference but I did not consider the shade. Well life goes on.

Back in the studio I start working the combine up. I use bright colors and exaggerate the image. This way when I add the shadow wash over the combine it will have more value to it. I always work up the important part and let it rest for a day. A fresh start always allows me a new perspective on the work.

If you are curios about my work here is my website.

http://www.nicholelorenzen.com/

God Bless.

Mud puddles have been few and far between this year but today an inch of rain fell over this area. We were all thankful for the much needed relief to hot weather and the joy of green in the fields.

I start with an aquabord. I have fallen in love with these. Yes they cost more per board than watercolor paper but you just drop them in a frame and done. It makes up in matting and glass. Also you can ship them. Start by running them quickly under the water to get the hole board damp and let it dry to get trapped air out.  A 1 inch boarder is put around the edges to help separate the image from the frame making a matte in some ways.  Taking my time to get the artwork draw has proven more valuable than any other step.
Well God Bless time to get back to painting.

 My passion for watercolors can be compared to a frog for a healthy fly, or maybe a farmer for rain. I love working the farm and painting. With this blog I hope to help other watercolorist with my experiences.

Expereince 1# Know your paint.

It sounds crazy but if you will take the time to do a few exercises with your paint it will help you be better at mixing. Below is a grid of the colors that I use. I drew lines going down the paper. Making sure to leave a 1/4 in. gap. Then painted the colors and labeled them. The next day I came back to do the same procedure sideways.    

The grid has helped me see which colors move more, granulate when mixed, and are opaque. Since I am a visual person, I can glance up and see my chart. This also shows me which colors to mix for nice deep grays.   Well hope this helps. God Bless