water lily watercolor flower painting

Water lily flower painting

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Flower Paintings

Derek McCrea's January 2008 Artist Newsletter

December 2007 was a pretty busy month as I completed a charity interior design project for Dianne Felton, a charity volunteer design project coordinator from Newport Beach, California. She was completing a project for a young girls room. One of the selections was this water lily flower watercolor painting. After the completion of the room makeover her comments were:

"Thank you so much for redecorating and
organizing my room. It looks amazing! I especially like the pictures of
the flowers. They are so pretty."

The images from the makeover are at the below link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marylouskowronski/sets/72157603423586921

One image from the makeover is also attached.

I finally completed all of the coordination placing works in an England based gallery, Zaracus. At the below link you can hear a commentary from me and read 12 stories of inspiration on 12 selected arts. My watercolor lily flower painting and other works are available from Zaracus as originals and fine art prints printed by Zaracus. Soon a personal video starring "me" will be posted on the site also. See below for link to Zaracus.

http://www.zaracus.com/pages/gallery/northamerica/mccrea/mccrea_gallery_01.html

Today, on Christmas eve I wanted to surprise my wife when she woke up with a painting of a water lily. It is a photo she took while we were in New Mexico at the Living Desert Park at an annual Indian festival where they made traditional Indian food including the Century Plant root.

I have attached an image of that latest work. It is available as an original or a limited edition print.

In January 2008, I plan to paint a large number of new works.

Derek McCrea
http://www.derekmccrea.50megs.com
US Army by Profession...
Visual Artist by Choice

View or purchase this art at my gallery at
Flower Paintings

Nov 07 Newsletter and Pen and ink log cabin drawing

Derek McCrea's November 2007 Artists Newsletter

I just got completed with my latest commission last night. It was an old barn house. I tried a few techniques on this work I never had tried before. I wanted the image to be a pen and ink but wanted the ink to be very dark, bold and have thick strokes, not my usual pen and ink technique. So I started out drawing this work in pencil and then took a "SHARPEE MARKER"...not the conventional artist’s tool and went to work on this 12 x 16 drawing attached.

Then after completing that I checked my email and found that my article I submitted for the magazine, "Watercolour Gazette" out of Canada is being published and they are sending me some copies of it in the November/December issue. Some of the article is shown below excluding images and step by step painting instructions in my lesson in the magazine:

Lessons learned throughout over 25 years of painting include:
1. Never paint when you are not inspired.
2. Try to visualize what you want to paint before you paint the subject and imagine a finished product and what steps you will take to get there.
3. For larger and more detailed works draw the image on the canvas first with light pencil.
4. Establish your own style but learn from others. Experiment with creating art using individual techniques beginning with smaller less detailed images and working your way up.
5. Techniques I have learned to use and call my own include:
- Use of splatter to create depth
- Use of charcoal on finished products to add texture and shadows
- Wet on wet, let the watercolors do their magic, sometimes watercolors when wet on wet create effects that make you say, “How did I do that?”
- Try not to use too much paint, start out with lighter colors and add layers of darker colors. Too much watercolor paint creates a mess that you can not fix. That is the difference between watercolors and other mediums that can be repaired by “painting over”.
- Use Art Trading Cards to practice your larger images before painting them large. This way if you make a mistake it will be on a small piece of paper and you can apply that lesson to your larger work.
- I have seen different techniques for holding the watercolor paper to your background for paintings, including stapling down the sides of the work. I prefer to use masking tape around the entire edges of my paintings. This also aids buyers to mat the painting with ½ inch edges all the way around the circumference of the painting.

My career is as a Soldier. My two hobbies include painting and offshore fishing. Both of which are very relaxing and allow me to express myself. Creating art for me is a way of life. Something I enjoy.

I attached my latest commission work to this email.

Also mid to end of October I worked on an artwork illustration for Perception Pro, who is using the image for advertising, banners, etc. look at a preview of their up and coming business site here:

http://www.xanderbean.com/per_pro/

Thanks for being a fan of my art.

I promise to keep creating as long as I have a breath left in me.

http://ArtsCad.com/@/DerekMccrea

Back in the day

Back in the day...I learned how to paint with oils. From 1987 to 2000 I painted exclusively with oils and most like my oils better than my watercolors. Most of my oils are hanging up in someones home but I still have some of my, "not so great ones" hanging around the house. For those artists that told me why don't you paint in oils. I can..I ahve "been there and done that" but watercolors free my soul...where oils cause too many problems for me, mainly my cat who walked all over the floor with "wet" feet and my kids who played finger painting with my art. So one day I may go back to iols, and honestly after trying watercolors, I must admit oils is much easier..artists who have went both ways know what I am talking about. Anyway here are some of my "not so great" oils I have left hanging around.

Butterflies and flowers watercolor painting

Watercolor paintings of flowers and butterflies.
Newest Commission for a company called Perception Pro. View or purchase this art at my gallery at
Watercolor Paintings

check out the Fine Art Original Watercolor Paintings swicki at eurekster.com

daisy chamomile flower painting

View or purchase this art at my gallery at
Flower Paintings

Light at Night 3 lighthouse painting

Another lighthouse tried to do this one with an evening nautical twilight theme. This was an experimentation with dark water, the light from the lighthouse and using gouche with the ends of the waves where they crash with the beach. View or purchase this art at my gallery at
Lighthouse Paintings

Cape Canaveral lighthouse Painting

Completed today. This is a weird lighthouse as the top is larger than the top of the structure, but I painted it as I saw it. I have to work on using less paint in my sky with watercolors. I prefer the light weightless effect and used too much paint for my taste in this one. This is located on Cape Canaveral where the Space Shuttle lifts off. Soon I hope to begin putting art on here as steps as classes. When I get the time. View or purchase this art at my gallery at
Paintings of Lighthouses

Sapelo Island lighthouse painting Georgia

My favorite Lighthouse painted this one today. I have painted this same lighthouse 3 times and I always enjoy it. Not many lighthouses have red in them and that makes this one unique. On the coast of Georgia off of Brunswick this Island is quiet, peaceful and abandoned except for the park ranger station and the place is gorgeous. I have sold the other paintings I painted of Sapelo Island. One was an oil and the other was a gigantic framed watercolor that I do not think I can ever duplicate. Watercolors when painting wet on wet are one of a kind. watercolors have a mind of their own when painting wet on wet but sometimes that uniques effect created is beautiful on it's own. View or purchase this art at my gallery at
Lighthouse Painting

First Post

I am new to the blog thingy, but I intend to use it a s a diary of my works and when I complete them, what inspires me, etc. Today I completed a commission for a woman from Los Angelos California. It is a still life flower watercolor painting called Lily of the Valley. It is here to my left. This blogger on google is cool...I am going to have fun with this.

Anyway, I started this painting as a drawing and drew all of the still life details. What is hard for me with watercolors is trying to keep the white...white...I love the way paintings look in watercolor with white it is just so difficult not to mess up the white while you are working.

I am getting better at it I believe. Practice makes perfect. I love tp paint watercolors. My wife loves this one and told me I better get her a print made of it before I send it off. I found a really nice place here in Melbourne Florida where they scan images up to 4 feet wide. I am going to make good use of them.

Derek McCrea

http://www.derekmccrea.50megs.com

US Army Infantry by Profession...

Visual Artist by Choice.