Sketches for Kauai Painting-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

These leaves were part of a Sunshine Market bouquet here on Kauai. I've started sketching elements that might be incorporated in a big canvas I just bought.

Orchid-Final

© Ellen Blonder

Finished the orchid study today. Also spotted my first Humpback Whale for the season when I looked up from the drawing table.

Older Kauai Painting

© Ellen Blonder

Five years ago, I created this large painting for our dining area in Kauai. I never work this big (about 40 x 50 inches), and seldom this loose, so painting it was both fun and terrifying at the same time. Well, I just bought a 36 x 40-inch canvas for the opposite wall. Time to have more fun and be terrified all over again.

White Orchids-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

When I went to set up my drawing things in Kauai, I found a pencil sketch I had started in my watercolor pad a year ago. I wish I had taken notes on the color, but I seem to remember it was white, so that's how I painted it today.

Poinsettia-Final

© Ellen Blonder

I think I'm done. I don't want to overwork the pinks and lose their softness against the creamy edges of the bracts.

Poinsettia-Day 7

© Ellen Blonder

I'm starting to lay in more color on the bracts, and I've added details to the tiny central flowers. And for the new year, I hope to be posting more regularly again. Happy New Year, everyone!

Poinsettia-Days 5 to 6

© Ellen Blonder

The green leaves are just about finished, and I've started shading the bracts roughly. The actual flowers are barely noticeable in the center of the colorful bracts.

Poinsettia-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

I'm painting in the leaves when I can catch a little time, but I can't paint from life, since the real leaves have started to curl and fall off. I was hoping to have this finished by Christmas. Well, maybe New Year's Day. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Poinsettia-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Here's a slight close-up showing a detailed leaf and one pink bract. Holiday stuff is getting in the way of painting. Some of the leaves on this plant have curled up or started drooping, so I'll have to rely on the photos I took for reference.

Poinsettia-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

I've filled in details and painted in the background color. The green wash is just underpainting to help me see which of the leaves are not going to end up cream-colored.

Poinsettia-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I bought an amazing cream-colored poinsettia plant last week, so big that I knocked off one of the branches getting it out of my car. I put that branch in water, and it has been begging to be painted ever since. I'm just beginning to sketch it out on a 16 x 16-inch board.

Dim Sum-Final

© Ellen Blonder

Because this is painted so loosely and on a pretty coarse canvas, I think I'm done. From the upper left, going clockwise, I painted a pork and shrimp steamed dumpling, a sweet sesame-flavored roll, a xiao long bao (Shanghai soup dumpling), spinach-dough dumpling, an unusual tomato-filled dumpling and a leaf-wrapped rice flour roll with sweet bean filling.

In Shanghai, I watched a dumpling crew make the soup dumplings with astonishing speed. Each one is rolled out, filled with a meat filling that includes jellied broth, then closed up with an impossible number of pleats. The broth melts during steaming, making a little soup inside and accounting for the slightly saggy shape. I didn't paint the shreds of ginger or vinegar that usually go with these.

Dim Sum-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

I've changed some of the dumplings to balance colors and shapes better. Still needs a lot of work, though.

Telephone Doodle

© Ellen Blonder

December's much too busy. That must have been on my mind when I was on the phone today, although this woman doesn't seem terribly concerned about time.

Dim Sum-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

Part of the fun of China was eating different dim sum from what I've had at home. I'm just starting to work out a painting of some of them; it's pretty rough so far. I might change some of the dumplings. This canvas is 8 x 16 inches, and the dumplings are about twice their actual size.

Christmas Card for 2009

© Ellen Blonder

Here are the Surinam cherries (see November 26 post, below) laid out on what will be my 2009 Christmas card. I've layered black and white patterns that I had hand-drawn a while back, then colorized and layered them in Photoshop. The abstract background pattern is taken from a scan of peeling paint.