Unique Greeting Cards

In this lens I will be introducing you to the beautiful watercolor paintings of my friend Karen. We recently visited Karen at her new home in Ohio and I was really impressed with the beautiful watercolor paintings Karen had in her home. She had moved to Ohio from Waco, Texas and it was in Texas that Karen first started painting 10 years ago.

I asked Karen why she decided to use watercolor as her medium. Here is her response " I had never done any painting whatsoever. I saw a continuing ed course offered at Baylor for watercolor and decided to give it a try. I fell in love with watercolor and never looked back!"

I am sure you will agree when you view her work that Karen made an excellent choice. In this lens I am featuring Karen's watercolors on greeting cards but they are also available on a host of other products at her Zazzle store KJMWatercolorsplus

photograph of Karen's art by mbgphoto

Karen felt the pumpkins needed to be painted. Here is her comment "The pumpkins were from photos taken on a beautiful fall day in Texas (and that means late November!). We drove into the Hill Country outside of Austin and I found this pumpkin farm. I took photos of all the great pumpkins and decided they must be painted!"

Watercolor painting is a great relaxing hobby for many people. Taking a class on watercolors is a great way to get started. In a class you will benefit from the knowledge of the instructors and the feedback of other students.

Some people prefer to learn on their own. Here are some books to get you started.

beauty on a blue background

Karen talks about how she came to paint these sunflowers. "All my flower paintings come from either photos or from actual flowers that I have received. The sunflowers were from photos taken at an arboretum in Texas on a very very hot summer day. You could feel the heat just sizzle and it was amazing to see these flowers just flourish in the hot and hazy summer sun. After I painted them I decided they really needed a background so I imagined a blue picket fence in the background to make the flowers pop. I do a lot of alteration to try and make my paintings sing. "

beautiful florals

This painting was hanging on the wall in Karen's house. It caught my eye right away. Karen really captured the cheery feeling with this painting. Here are her thought on the Vase of Carnations.

"The carnations in a pot were a floral birthday gift from my son's family. I decided that the happiness they gave me needed to be expressed through a painting. I feel that I captured my carefree and happy birthday feelings with the painting of the carnations. "

beauty in yellow and white

Here are Karen's thoughts on her painting "Flowers are my favorite painting subject, but I really will paint a variety of things. I generally paint from photos that I have taken on trips or just photos of flowers in my garden. Whatever inspires me is what I like to paint. I particularly like the light and shadows on objects."

This painting of spring daisies is one of my favorite paintings of Karens. I love the way she captured the beauty of a simple bunch of daisies. Daisies are my favorite flower and a topic often picked by artists. I think the simplicity of the flower is what draws artists to them.

I have found that you can learn a lot by watching videos you find on the internet. The great thing about the videos is that you can start and stop them to rewatch areas in didn't catch at first. I have used videos to learn to crochet and for other art projects. I think they would be helpful for watercolor painting too. Even if you are an experienced painter you can pick up tips from others.

Here is a video to get you started water painting.

Karen would love to hear your comments on her artwork. I will forward all comments to her.