ORIGINAL MINIATURE ROSE FLOWER PAINTING BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

BLOOMING

ORIGINAL MINIATURE ROSE FLOWER PAINTING IN WATERCOLOR
BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

6 x 6

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Today's miniature watercolor painting is of a sweet rose in the process of blooming. I love the way her center glows with an inner light. I used a few different yellows with a touch of red to get the luminous light. I thought the several leaves offered a supportive backdrop for this gentle rose. Lately the miniatures I've been painting in watercolor are rich enough that they can be framed under glass or plexi but without mats to more resemble the look of oil or acrylic. I'm currently hard at work on some miniature oil paintings, so come back and visit soon.

ORIGINAL MINI WATERCOLOR TROPICAL FLOWER PAINTING BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ - BABY PLUMERIA

BABY PLUMERIA

ORIGINAL MINIATURE WATERCOLOR PAINTING 
BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

6 X 6

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This small painting is done in watercolor, but with the richness of acrylic or oil. I just seem to really love the richness and living in the tropics, that deepness in hue is strong in the environment. I think it may be soon time to get my oils out to play. First though I need to work on some of the half sheet and full sheet watercolor ideas I have roaming my mind. I used to struggle with ideas sometimes but once I started doing photography and painting often I know I'll never run out of ideas. I just hope I'm around long enough to get some of them on paper or canvas.

ORIGINAL MINIATURE WATERCOLOR PEONY FLOWER PAINTING BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

RED PEONY

ORIGINAL MINIATURE WATERCOLOR PAINTING
BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

6 X 6

WILL FIT IN A STANDARD 6 X 6 FRAME OR CAN BE MATTED INTO A LARGER  FRAME

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I was really having a lot of fun with this little mini - the colors ended up so rich, almost looks like an oil painting but it really is watercolor. The peony is such a wonderful flower to paint. I may even try this one in oil one day. Have a wonderful Sunday!

ORIGINAL MINIATURE WATERCOLOR PAINTING - MANDARIN - BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

MANDARIN

ORIGINAL MINIATURE FLORAL WATERCOLOR PAINTING
BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

8 X 8

SOLD

What attracted me to this flower was the richness of the colors in the sunlight and I just fell in love with the bunch of leaves just behind the hibiscus blossom. I also liked how the edges of the petals curved over. The interesting thing about the Hibiscus flower is that most of them only bloom for one day. Healthy plants usually have lots of buds so we are gifted with blossoms often.

Mon Famile an original contemporary flower mini watercolor painting by Colleen Sanchez

MON FAMILE
ORIGINAL FLOWER MINIATURE WATERCOLOR PAINTING
BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

5 X 7 
FITS STANDARD 8 X 10 MAT/FRAME

SOLD

I fell in love with this Hibiscus bush one day at a local park. The back-lit flowers were so striking, the rich color glow just a knockout. I tried to show that glow through less focus on details and more focus on the vibrancy of the light. Sometimes you just need to put down the brushes, stand back and say, yeah, it's done.

Colleen Sanchez - Sharing My Art Studio Space

My Studio Space
Colleen Sanchez

Over the last few months I've had some questions from people - clients and other artists about where and how I paint. So today, here is a little window into part of my art studio space where I do my original miniature watercolor paintings. 

This photo shows a portion of the table area I use for working on my miniature paintings and my small drawings. I use 140 and sometimes 300 lb paper for the mini watercolors so I don't need to do any stretching or taping down. I also really like the paintings done right to the edge of the paper, nicer for matting and framing.

I usually try to work on a few mini paintings in tandem, which allows me to spend less time waiting for a wet into wet passage to dry on one particular painting before continuing on. If I'm on a roll painting, I like to get to it and paint, not spend my time waiting for the paint passages to dry. My own personal preference is a choice not to use a hair dryer, I like the paintings to dry naturally.

For these small paintings I worked the backgrounds first with a wet into wet application considering the colors and style that would compliment each bloom. I like to have a somewhat abstract background so I can focus on the beauty of the flowers but sometimes still have a suggestion of foliage behind the flowers. 

Once the background was dry I worked on the leaves and flower buds with direct painting and dropped in colors. When that is dry I can deepen if need be and glaze in some shadows. 

For the blooms themselves, sometimes I glaze the colors on, dry them, glaze on more color but sometimes I do them all in one go, starting with one color and dropping other colors into the wet paint. I may sometimes have some lifting to do while the paint is still damp to suggest a few veins. 

Once I'm happy with the light, color, shadows and texture of the blooms, I may dry brush in a few final details and viola - a completed miniature watercolor painting.

I think creating these original mini paintings on a somewhat regular basis allows some experimentation and teaches me a lot of techniques that really pay off when I'm working on my larger pieces. And the best bonus to me - they are a lot of fun to do. However, sometimes I really mess one up, or more and have to get rid of it. My artist friends cringe when I do that, always telling me I should never throw any away, but to me, sometimes they are just so yucky they have to go. You know we can be our own worst critics at times, LOL.

Some time in the future I may do a longer article about working on some of my larger paintings along with some step by step photos. In the meantime thanks so much for tuning in. Happy Hunting to you art lovers and keep on painting to my artist friends.

ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR HIBISCUS FLOWER PAINTING BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

FIRELIGHT
ORIGINAL MINIATURE CONTEMPORARY FLORAL WATERCOLOR PAINTING
BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ
5 X 7
FITS STANDARD 8 X 10 MAT / FRAME

SOLD
A mini watercolor painting from one of my many photo resources. This one is richly back lit and took a few layers of wet into wet glazing to get the rich colors. And of course the paintings always look so much better than a photo of it can portray.

HELICONIA an Original Graphite Drawing by Colleen Sanchez

HELICONIA
ORIGINAL DRAWING IN GRAPHITE ON PAPER
BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

11.5 X 8.5

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Along with painting I love to do some black and white graphite drawings sometimes. Ever since my high school days I have loved black and white art works. This one catches the light that was hitting this Heliconia plant. Fun.

ORIGINAL MINIATURE WATERCOLOR PAINTING BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

RASPBERRY CREAM

AN ORIGINAL MINIATURE FLORAL WATERCOLOR PAINTING
by Colleen Sanchez

8x8

AVAILABLE

Early one morning I spotted this tiny, tiny rose not more than one inch across in the garden outside our building. I thought I'd have a little fun with macro photography of it, kind of liked the rose. so decided to paint it in watercolor. Seemed to take a very long time with all the petals and variations of color within each one. I thought it needed a very dark background to set it off. Thanks for taking the time to look.

ORIGINAL MINI WATERCOLOR PAINTING BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ

WHITE RAIN
ORIGINAL MINIATURE WATERCOLOR PAINTING
BY COLLEEN SANCHEZ
8 X 8
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One day at a local park I came across several bushes of the gorgeous White Hibiscus. Luckily it had just rained and they looked so wonderful as the sun started to shine again.