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In the firelight – colourful watercolour swirly trees against a sky of fire

In the firelight - colourful watercolour swirly trees against a sky of fire
In the firelight – colourful watercolour swirly trees against a sky of fire

 

This original watercolour painting is painted on high quality 9″ x 11″ watercolour paper, and is available for purchase in my Etsy store.

Prints, and products like the ones featured below, are available via Redbubble.

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Little details

I’ve been enjoying doing some paintings with lots of little details lately.  The first is one I started a LONG time ago, but only finished recently, entitled ‘Growth’.  This painting includes lots of little details, including some embroidered elements, which is a first for me.

Growth by KL Bailey Art
‘Growth’ – original watercolour painting by KL Bailey Art

 

The next two paintings were both inspired by ocean waves.  One was done primarily with watercolours, with some ink drawing done afterwards.  The other was inspired by zentangles, and I did the patterened sections with a sharpie first before adding the colour with watercolours later.

Blue watercolour ocean painting by KL Bailey Art
‘Beneath the waves’ – original watercolour painting by KL Bailey Art
'In the Deep' - watercolour painting blue with black and white details
‘In the Deep’ – original watercolour painting by KL Bailey Art

 

I’m not sure which one I like best yet, but I’m leaning towards the last one – what are your thoughts?

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Illustration Friday – Immovable

This week’s topic over at Illustration Friday is Immovable.  The first idea that came to me was stone – but then I got to thinking that even stone isn’t really immovable.  Sure, it might take a long time but even stone is worn away by weathering and water.  So that was my inspiration for this painting – stone being worn down by water:

immovable - original acrylic painting by Kirsten Bailey

Please forgive the horrible photo – I took it at night without flash so it’s pretty grainy.  I’ll try to upload a better version when I get time to take a good daylight photo – but that probably won’t be till the weekend and I didn’t want to miss out on Illustration Friday!

One of my favourite books of all time is First Light by Richard Preston, which is about the Hale Telescope (and is a fascinating read for anyone interested in astronomy).  One of the passages that stuck with me was this:

“There is a saying among those who polish astronomical mirrors for a living that an optician never finishes a mirror – you take it away from him.”

I think that pretty much sums up how a painting like this is for me – I can’t guarantee the picture above is the final version because every time I walk past it I think about adding another brush stroke here or there, another layer or another detail.

I managed to remember to take pictures as I went for this one – here’s how it looked as it progressed:

What do you think?