Those of you who’ve been visiting here for a while wont be surprised to learn that I’ve acquired Jean Haines’ new book: Jean Haines Atmospheric Flowers in Watercolour: Painting With Energy And Life…
It’s a beautiful book with beautiful inspiring art work on almost every page. The first exercise in the book is about painting violets. These are my warm up exercises before moving on to the step-by-step tutorial…

All of these exercises were done as a double page spread in my khadi paper sketchbook. I like how they turned out. I can see the usefulness of doing warm up exercises before moving onto a more important piece of work. I can immediately see what works and what doesn’t, what colour combinations work best for me and what I need to improve on. I straight away noticed that I have a tendency to make my stems too fat… I’ll work on it – I clearly need to learn to have a much lighter touch with my brush… !

I enjoyed doing these very much and I’m looking forward to doing the step-by-step tutorial. I snatched time to paint these in between looking after my lovely mum who had an accident just over a week ago and has a nasty fracture at the top of her right arm. I’ve had to take some time off work to be her full time carer for a while till she can look after herself again. Get well soon mum xx !!
I’m off now to carry on reading through Jean’s new book, enjoy what’s left of your weekend…
Lovely flowers. I requested the book from the library system. Hope your Mom is better soon.
Thank you Sandy – it’s a really lovely book! Mum will hopefully be much better in a few weeks…
Lovely little violets, Evelyn! Soo pretty. Ours are all done for this year but they have self seeded into the back lawn so we are BOUND to have plenty next spring. Very nice job!
Thank you Carolynn – they’re just little practice sketches but fun to do…
Lovely work, Evelyn!!
I will have to get that book. I hope your Mom gets better soon. 💕🌸
Thank you Patty Anne – I love Jean’s new book! Mum is very frustrated with all the things she can’t do at the moment!
You are such a natural with watercolor Evelyn! These are beautiful. So sorry to hear about your Mum! Glad you are able to be her carer – and that you are still able to find some time for you to art!
Thank you Jodi – I love Jean’s new book, it’s beautiful and inspiring in so many ways. My mum is 80 years old and generally very fit and well for her age. This has been a huge shock to her system but she’s getting stronger each day – thankfully – and she’s a very determined, independent lady… !
Very pretty – hope your mum has a speedy recovery xxx
Thank you Tanya – I’m enjoying Jean’s new book very much… Mum is steadily progressing
Gorgeous Evelyn.
Thank you Sharon…
I think these are really beautiful, Evelyn.
I especially love the second one.
Have a wonderful week!
Thank you Lisa…
Gorgeous violets. Wishing your mum a speedy recovery xx
Thank you Sunnyfae…
Love how the colours hamonize with each other. Warm up exercises – apart from the learning aspect – are also great for putting you in a creative frame of mind. Sometimes I can almost feel it when my brain clicks into creative mode!
Thank you Zsuzsa – I totally agree with you about the warm up exercises… !