I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We celebrated with family and food, and lots of wonderful treats and sweets. This slightly ambitious 20 minute painting is of a piece of Dutch almond roll, almond cake, and anise honey koek. All homemade and delicious, and only a sampling of the many varieties we had to enjoy. Watercolor, 5 1/2" x 8".
The large and varied assortment of Christmas ornaments hanging around have been wonderful subject matter for 20 minute paintings! Every ornament is different (well, other than a couple of those colored glass ones). The blue glaze on Delftware is a very unique deep dark blue - but I think I captured it pretty accurately on this little ornament here. Watercolor, approx. 5" x 7".
Decorating our Christmas tree are several of these really neat Polish "porcupine" paper ornaments, all handmade, unique, and very special. Since I enjoy using nearly all the paint colors in my palette in one painting, this was a perfect 20 minute challenge! Rainbow colors are so cheerful, especially on gray winter days. Watercolor, 5" x 6 1/2".
Pizzelles are most definitely one of my favorite cookies, whether it's Christmas or any other season. They can vary when you buy them at a store or bakery, but when I make them they are always going to be anise flavor - delicious. Out of the Christmas cookies I baked/painted this year, this was the most challenging cookie to paint in 20 minutes! All those little waffle-y crevices, the intricate flower pattern, the irregular "deckled" edges, its thin, wafery goodness... I might have to try painting one again. Of course, it will be a different pizzelle, because I ate the subject of this painting once the timer went off. Watercolor, 5 1/2" x 7".
These party band members were a great subject for sketching. Unlike my usual 20 minute sketching/painting process, each sketch here probably took less than 3 minutes to do. I was hoping to quickly capture the essence of their high-energy fun performance. Pen, 3 1/2" x 4 1/2".
Another 20 minute Christmas cookie painting! This probably resembled a Christmas tree more in the dough stage than after it was baked, but since when was that ever a problem? Decorating cutouts is always enjoyable. Surprisingly, it was hard to complete this painting in 20 minutes. There was more detail than I first thought! Watercolor, approx. 5 1/2" x 7".
A cute little candy cane cookie painted in 20 minutes. This variety is one of my holiday favorites, I love peppermint flavor in pretty much any sort of sweet. Part of the dough is tinted pink and then the two colors are twisted gently together before baking, which is somewhat time consuming, but worth it. They get sprinkled with crushed up candy canes, though whatever doesn't stick to the top melts, and makes the cookies adhere to the tray (not a problem for me this time, as I used parchment paper on the trays). Holiday baking is the best! Watercolor, 5 1/2" x 8".
