//My Beginner Flower Watercolor Workshop//

Hello,

I am very sorry for I have not posted anything for such a long time. There are so many stories I would like to share with you. But I am going to fast forward before I talk about other stories.

I have been wanting to conduct a watercolor workshop - and I dreamt about being a teacher for a long time. 

Although this is the second time I had a workshop, I pretty much know what to do and prepared for the materials I wanted to teach my students.

Since I love vintage china and high tea for as long as I can remember - I thought it would be a good idea to combine them together. I like the idea for a small intimate lovely and friendly water color class where my students and I can be girly girl friendly among each other. I deliberately give a long hours for the class so that people can enjoy painting and eating the food during class. Having a break and drinking tea and eating quiche and sand whiches seems to be a great idea. 

I also prepared a booklet for my students. This booklet contained a basic technique on how to paint flower watercolor also some important material like sources where they can get materials, and where they can learn basic flower on their own.

I was very happy because just before the class started someone from Japan contacted me if I am going to have another workshop which was requested by my friends in New York as well. We just have to set up the date. So it was a perfect timing for her and it happened that she was going to travel to New York. So I was very happy to have her in my class.

I am hoping to conduct more watercolor workshops in the future. This is something I really like doing. Teaching others about basic flower watercolor is my passion. I would love to teach all what I know about flower watercolor to my students.

So if you are interested or have a group of friends wanted to learn basic flower watercolor while having some good food out of vintage china I would like to teach you and your friends or your family.

Just contact me through email at Elmelati@gmail.com. Thank you.

Thank you for stopping by!

//Pretty Brushes Containers Idea//

So if you are an artist, like me - you are likely have ton of brushes, colored pencils, markers, rulers, etc. The question is where are all of those stationery or art supplies being put in? I like them being put in an interesting, unique container I could find. Not only they are functional but also pretty as a decoration on your working table.

I found mine all over - it could be in a cheapest thrift stores like Goodwill, Habitat Humanity TJ Maxx and Home Goods. 

I like browsing around thrift stores looking for a small interesting knick knack like a small ceramic vase, a pretty glass or a cup, even a silver ware. Anything that have the right size, color, material to hold paint brushes. And they cost cheaply that I wont spend more than USD 4.00 per container. Over time and since I have a lot of colored pencils, brushes from school days; I collected many of these little jars to hold them all. 

When they are not in use - they look pretty group them together somewhere in your studio.

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These are ceramic vases I got from Goodwill. They only cost about USD 1.50 or USD 2.00 each.

I love the tray that I was not quite sure what to do but since only USD 1.50 I can't argue with myself to get it and it is actually quite useful.

I love gold. Gold picture frame, gold vase, gold vignettes, gold small decorative item, I love them all. Here bought from TJ Maxx as candle holder at USD 3.50 is pretty to use a brush holder.

Tin tea boxes are pretty interesting too. Whenever I go to HomeGoods I will look for them in the food isle. Sometimes I buy only for the tin box and could not care less for the flavoring of the tea.

These pretty little glasses bought from Home Goods a long time a go. It's a hit and miss thing. Sometime you see them sometime you don't. So when you see them, just grab it because if you don't you will never see it again.

For the large brushes with long handles I am using a regular size clear vases. These are vases that many thrift stores has. I think those are vases that our grandmas used to have around the house. They cost about USD 1.00 each.

Have a beautiful day? And thank you for stopping by!

//How to Display Paintings or Art Works - Part One//

I always been fascinating with arts and paintings. To me, a room is not a room without any art on it's wall.

Since I myself is  "an artist", it's obvious that I like to decorate rooms in my house with arts - "my arts" exactly.

I started out by learning how to paint using oil. Then for a short period of time I used gouache when I worked at textile company as textile artist.

Later on I explored with acrylic and I fell in love with acrylic. It is a water base medium and very easy to use and to manipulate to create texture. For a long time I painted only with acrylic as a hobby. My subject was an abstract. To me, painting abstract is a way of an expression. What I feel can be felt through the brush strokes and shape within the art itself.

Recently I explored painting with water color. And painting a bottle of perfume with water color came suddenly in me about almost 2 years a go. Since then I never stop painting bottle of perfumes. More on my online Etsy store, here.

In my opinion and after studying how the experts decorate arts in modern day's homes - I came up with other arts to display together with the water color perfume arts. These bold geometric abstract monochromatic arts is pretty to hang side by side with the perfume drawing arts. Again if you interested to see, here.  In this post, I displayed and took picture just how I did it and to show you how.

This post is part one. Next time in part two, I will be talking about how to choose "frames" for the arts.

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 Mixing bold art with the perfume arts is a successful way to create a beautiful wall art display. Not only the monochromatic grays are neutral that goes with any color but it is bold enough and yet texturized to compliment the perfume arts. 

Displaying vignettes under the hanging arts is another way to decorate a room. Here, the sculptured horse is an object and accentuate by a small bouquet of pink roses.

 Here the perfume arts displayed with two monochromatic geometric abstract arts. And the arts decorated with fresh roses arrangements underneath. Adding a small sculptured decorative arts is another way to create a beautiful group of arts in a small corner of a room.

For a small table - a single is pretty to display with other vignettes. Try to create vignettes with different shapes like skinny and large, short and tall to add interest and balance.

Again, a small perfume art is another pretty way to create beautiful corner console table. I always love roses, so adding bouquet of roses always create an instant pretty to the whole setting. Layering arts is another beautiful way to tell story about a group of vignettes that being displayed. Choose contrast bold arts together. What I mean by bold is that a busy pattern sometimes is hard to decorate, it need another skill on itself to pull it off. Choose opposite frames, thin and thick but not too busy - and very small frame against big one.

A single small art is pretty to decorate a night or small table.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

//How to Start to Paint Fresh Flowers in Water Color - Part 3//

Actually there is no rules in painting flowers in water color but "practice."

If  I have to be honest and come up with one rule is that try to copy the shape and color of the flowers as close as possible. It is actually does not matter if it is not exactly like the real flowers. I love it very much when it is a little off but still showing a suggestion that it is a "rose", "hibiscus" or "sun flower".  Most of the time I never copy it exactly the same. And after so many practices - you will ended up with your own style.

When walking around places find and pick a small brunch of leaves with flowers. Since most places is not allow to pick flowers - you have to extra careful when going around and try to pick flowers from public areas. It is okay to ask people if you can pick one little brunch of leaves with it's flowers. Mostly people do not mind as it is just wild flowers and will not show the difference to the whole plants if you pick one stem.

Or you can also pick a stem of leaves and practice with leaves first. And just having fun.

Okay we have been visiting our home in Delray Beach Florida for 10 days tomorrow. And tomorrow we are leaving back to cold New York City.

If you interested in looking at my other posts about painting with water color they are - here, here and here

I have been practicing and studying by painting small flowers using water color while here in Delray Beach, Flo. Here are the results.

You start to paint any where in the paper. At this point it does not matter because you are practicing. Whenever there are more space left - you can use that space to paint other leaves or flower.

It is important and if possible to paint during the day with a lot of natural light source near your station.

I painted this flower at night and today I see that the color is not right in picture. The color of the flower is blue in hue. And the art is a little red, hence a slight purple.

Put all the flowers in a small vase in water and whenever you want to paint just pick it up and hold and paint it while looking at  the flower in your hand.

Happy painting Everyone??