Femme Fatale

9x6 watercolor, Brusho, and India ink on wc paper done by stamping stencils on a background with complementary oranges and blues then dusting Brusho watercolor crystals into wet areas.  When dry black ink was applied for the female features.
COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2018.

Grunge Journal

Start having fun with your creative self and begin making a grunge journal.  Find an old hardback discarded book that will lay flat when opened to any page.  Decorate, gesso, collage, glue pages together, ANYTHING GOES.  Sketch, paint, doodle, copy text and mix with any media you have.  It is your creation and no one sees it unless you let them.  Illustrated journaling is a blast!  This old book was published in 1959.  It is not a sketchbook, but a funbook!
Image COPYRIGHT 2017 Kay Smith/Brushworks Studio
1971ks@att.net
www.kaysmith.artspan.com
http://kaysmithbrushworks.blogspot.com

Adobe Shadows

12x9 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper completed a few weeks ago in New Mexico. Who doesn't love the quaint adobe stucco style buildings, the ladders, and those deep blue clear skies?

Image COPYRIGHT 2017 Kay Smith.

Daydreaming Cat

6x9 watercolor by Kay Smith COPYRIGHT 2017

Apple Buckets

15x11 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper, a fall or autumn scene featuring ripe red apples at the base of a tree.  I love these old buckets in a landscape still life setting.

Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.



Tucson Adobe

15x15 watercolor of an old adobe house finished yesterday, shot on one of many trips to Tucson, Arizona. From the grey brown hills behind the house, to the cactus, red yucca, and other vegetation this southwest desert scene is sure to enchant you. Its wooden cross with a bell beside it to keep it company rounds out the composition while dark clouds move across the sky. I particularly enjoy its decorated doorway and vigas.
Image COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2016.

Wine O'Clock

15x11 mixed media on Arches 140 lb cold press wc paper done today. It is currently featured on WetCanvas in the Weekend Drawing Event hosted by Christine in Australia. I used charcoal pencil to sketch over a poured watercolor primary colored background. My intention was to paint poinsettias but saw the wine bottle, glasses, plants, and chair and thought the still life set up was more interesting. Caran D'Ache NeoColor II wax crayons used for accent colors at the end. Some realism, abstraction, and imagination here. The mosaic table's broken tiles were outlined around sections of paint already there from the underpainting, then enhanced. Now they might resemble cheese wedges. Not a great painting but a fun one.
Image COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Caviar Chef - torn paper collage on canvas

12x12 torn paper collage on wrapped canvas that was auctioned today to benefit United Way in Big Spring, TX.
I made this fellow a few years ago using glossy magazine pages, and am so glad he got a new home.
Image COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2011.

Sleepy Susans

5.5x8 watercolor and ink line on Strathmore Visual Journal for mixed media done yesterday.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Red Laundry Basket

7.5x5 watercolor over pencil drawing in Moleskine for watercolor sketchbook.  A tall pile of that never ending chore, the wash!
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Ruffled Poppies

15x22 watercolor painted from silk poppies and cosmos arrangement I set up by interior room shutters at home.
Image is COPYRIGHT Kay Smith.

Happy New Year! Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 CHALLENGE

Here is day 2, Happy New Year, for this month's 30 paintings in 30 days which actually was posted yesterday.  For day 1 I posted New Year's Eve; you all have seen these on my personal blog already so it looks like am a day behind, lol! Thanks to Leslie Saeta for sharing her blog again with so many artists.  I did her first 30 day challenge but have not since participated.
Having fun with Sketchbook Skool, too, that will restart soon.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Frozen Trees

Here's yesterday's work, 7.5x5.5 watercolor with white wax crayon accents on Arches 140 lb cold press paper.  Using no reference and no pencil, I drew linear marks both horizontal and vertical on dry paper, then put in neutral washes of raw umber, Prussian blue, sepia, and carbazole violet.  Negative painting was the focus of riverbank tree trunks, branches, and limbs hanging over icy waters.
(c) Kay Smith 2014

Frozen Riverbanks

7x5 watercolor winter landscape done a few seasons ago that is now SOLD.
All my artist friends, especially the Caboose gals, know landscapes are not my forte'.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2012 Kay Smith.

Ripe Cherries

2.5x3.5 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Langton paper, done this week with brush only, no pencil drawing first. These luscious cherries are just waiting for you! Miniatures such as this one are also called artist trading cards or Artist Cards Editions & Originals.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Hidden Hearts

22x30 acrylic on Lanaquarelle 140 lb hot press paper, the last one done in Doug Walton's class on Thursday. Its abstract design is based upon a tiny 3x3 square of 5 colors chosen thru a random drawing. Top background is glazed with Liquitex fluorescent red. As I worked, dark and pastel pink hearts appeared, hence the title. In my tiny square, the black only went about 1/3 of the way across from right side; Doug had me paint it all the way to indicate a mountain. Later when it is back from the Heritage Museum show, I may take the black out and further develop the heart theme. More detail is what I like so this one's my favorite of all the pieces done.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.