Janet Zeh

The Happy Place is now a beautiful landscape with flowers blooming, a rainbow arching in the distance, butterflies flitting about and sheep baaing in a distant field. All that is missing are children and animals to frolic and play.

So let's call them into the scene starting with the two boys and then their pets.



First, I mix some flesh colors using burnt sienna, yellow, red, blue and white in various values of light, medium and dark. Then I paint these colors in the skin areas keeping the right side darker because it's the shadow side.


I paint the clothing before working on the facial details. This will help me get the colors and values right.


Finally, I add details using the photos that I'd been given as a guide. This is not a quick process. It takes time and lots of patience to get the boys to look the way I want them because I do not have photos of them in a running position or with their heads turned as they are here:


The younger boy had expressive eyes and my goal is to capture that.


The older boy did not ever have a chance to run and play since he died before birth, but his twin brother who is now age 11 survived. I use photos of the twin as reference for his features. I want to keep the face and hair soft and somewhat angelic looking.


When the boys are painted, I add a gray cat, one of the family pets:


And then a golden retriever:


Since I paint pet portraits much more often than people, the animals take less time to paint.


Next is a chocolate Labrador retriever:



Now the Happy Place has come alive with the joy of children and animals!


For a final touch, a pair of bluebirds flit about in the pear tree. They are not noticeable, unless you look closely at the painting but they are there: bluebirds of happiness.


Since the sides and top edges of the canvas are painted, we cannot forget the bottom. I turn the painting upside down to paint the bottom edge:


While the painting is upside down, I check everything out.  Because I am not seeing things as they normally are when a painting is turned upside down, anything that is not drawn or painted accurately tends to jump out at me. If I can see it, I can fix it.

In this case, there were a couple of small things that I noticed like places where the paint was not covering the canvas enough, so I touched them up.

Here is the completed oil painting: you can click it to see it larger

I found it a very moving experience to create this painting since I raised boys myself. I hope that the piece will be meaningful for the family of these two beautiful children.

Here are the other two parts of this three part demo:

1. A Happy Place, Part 1
2. A Happy Place, Part 2

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I'm happy to take custom orders.Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.
To receive my posts by email, fill in your email address under FOLLOW BY EMAIL in the right hand column and click Submit. You'll receive my posts in your email inbox at the end of each day that a post is made.

I start by painting the grassy areas, leaving large areas white for where I'll paint flowers.




And blue hydrangeas in the lower left corner...


...remembering to continue the painting onto the sides of the canvas:


Now I can see that the pear tree needs some lighter leaves. It was looking a bit too dark.

So with a small brush, I highlight some of the leaves.








While we're highlighting, I add some to the trees on the far side of the lake.

It has turned out to be a lake after all. In the beginning sketch it was a pond with pond-y type things in it.

But by now, it's clear that the the pond wants to be a lake with the sky and the shoreline reflecting on it. Anything more will be too busy.

Fine. A lake it is.

Let's add a few more details. How about a hummingbird?


And a butterfly...


And more butterflies, because they are just so happy and sunny looking...


And little white flowers that bloom in the grass...


Here is how everything looks altogether so far. What do you think? You can click the images to see them bigger.


Next time, I'll be painting the animals and children. I hope you stop by to watch!

Back in November, I received a request for a very special oil painting. Very special.

Normally, paintings don't take me all that long to do. I can usually finish a custom painting in a few weeks. But this one had me thinking a lot. And when the request came in, it was crazy, busy holiday rush time. Since the client did not need it done for Christmas, I let it percolate for a while in the back of my mind until I could give it my full attention.

The reason this painting had me thinking so much was the subject: two boys, brothers who are no longer trailing their sparks of light upon this earth - one who was aged 7, the other who would have been 11 had he lived.

The request was to paint them running hand-in-hand in a colorful, happy, wonderful place, with mountains and water and animals and birds and a rainbow...and the pets that their family had loved.

A lot to think about.

So I thought. Then I did a preliminary drawing of the boys and the pets to get a starting point, and transferred the drawing to canvas.




It's a colorful sky with clouds that are touched with peachy colors against a deep blue.


Because this oil is being painted on a deep-edged canvas, the painting is carried around onto the edges:

This means for the top edge, I have to do some climbing to reach it - a chair is just the right height.









When the sky is roughly finished, the background land areas are ready to be painted.

My plan is to have the boys running next to a pond or lake. The trees on the far side of the lake are what I paint next.

Creating a feeling of depth on a flat canvas requires the use of aerial perspective. This means that objects that are farther away are painted duller and bluer than close-up objects. So I paint the trees a muted green.

But we don't really want dull! What is needed is flowers and color and joyfulness even far away.

I add some flowering shrubs for color and then bring their reflection into the water. Even so, the colors are more muted than they will be up close.
The water also reflects the sky and clouds.

In the right hand field, I decide to paint some sheep grazing. I also add blue mountains in the distance since that was one of the requests. It seems just right:


When the water is painted in and the background somewhat complete, I can start with stronger, brighter and warmer color in the foreground.

I experiment with the tree on the right - what will it be? At this point, I'm not sure.





Ah! A pear tree.

I like the idea of a pear tree because in ancient Chinese folk lore, pear trees signified immortality or eternal life.

As you might have noticed, even though I had ideas for the painting, as things progress, some of those ideas change slightly.

This is what makes the creative process exciting - when the painting starts speaking its own mind and the artist listens.

I try to listen.

You can click any of the images to see them larger. Next time, I'll be painting the foreground. Click here to see the next part of the oil painting demonstration.
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Hawaii has been on my mind recently. Most likely because it is gray and drab here when the sun is not out to brighten up the leafless landscape. Even on clear days, the sun is a lazy thing, not bothering to get up until 7AM and going to bed early at 4:30 PM.

And no snow! Snow makes winter beautiful in the North.  But we have only been graced with it once this fall.  It wreaked havoc that time because it was too early. The oak trees had not lost their leaves and the heavy snow weighed the branches down so much they broke, falling in a haphazard fashion all over the power lines.  We were without power for 10 days. Kind of nice, actually, to live in a more rustic kind of way. But it's nicer to have it back.

So Hawaii has been in my thoughts. And how lucky that a web surfing lover of sunsets and soft sea colors found my site and wanted a beautiful Hawaii sunset painting for herself. "It doesn't even have to be a seascape," she explained. "I just love the colors in your Sunset Beach paintings. And the big bright sun."

Ahh... music to an artist's ears. I can paint whatever I want so long as there is a big bright sun and beautiful colors. 

I want to paint a seascape based upon an earlier Hawaii sunset watercolor I did, because where else do you find colors like that? And Hawaii's been on my mind.

I begin with the sky colors painting them wet-into-wet and immediately, it's good. The clouds have softened right into the blue of the sky in wispy, cloud-like strands of pale mauve.

Watercolors are so rewarding when they behave like that.
Encouraged by this early success, I add some darker wispy clouds also wet-into-wet and they behave nicely as well.

The sunset needs more color, so I wash in more reds and yellows along the horizon. That's good for now, although it will probably need more color later. But things need to dry first.


So instead of the painting developing top to bottom as I usually do with seascapes, we now have a sandwich type effect:

Which means I have to do something with that big white space in the middle.

How about this:
Not bad.

But the ocean is too pale, especially on the left side. Hmmm... I'll let it sit and dry for now and distract myself with numerous other things like planning what color to paint the studio walls since they need an overhaul. And whether I'll paint the walls in a stucco-like effect or a mottled effect. Or a plain effect. And what about the ceiling? That needs to be painted first.

By the time I've distracted myself to the point that the painting is completely dry, I return to it with fresh eyes to see what comes next.

The ocean waves are calling to me, "Paint us! We need blue. We need turquoise. We need pale pink reflections. We need waves.

So I oblige. They don't know it, but they even need a bit of yellow-green, but just a tiny bit. Funny how that little bit of warm color in a sea of cool colors can make all the difference.
Back to the sky which, no surprise, tells me it now needs more work. I add more color to the sunset until it looks right with the rest of the painting.

Just to balance things out, I add some purple clouds to the right over the sun. Everyone happy now?


It can be easy to over work a painting, and heaven forbid I do that, so I step back and make sure it is all OK.


Big sun: check.  
Beautiful sunset colors: check.  
I'm happy with it: check

So off in the mail it will go! Sigh. It was nice to be in Hawaii in December. Wouldn't you like to be there?

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I'm happy to take custom orders!Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.
To receive my posts by email, fill in your email address under FOLLOW BY EMAIL in the right hand column and click Submit. You'll receive my posts in your email inbox at the end of each day that a post is made.

The past two days were a fabulous weekend. I had invited an exclusive group of my local collectors to an Open Studio event and many came. We had a great time and they all went home with new pieces of art under their arms!

Here are some pics of my set up before the crowds arrived:

There are small paintings on the table and my larger framed paintings on the display racks. Those racks are used for outdoor shows as well, but when not used at a show, they stay up in my studio - that's how I store the framed paintings. I like it much better than keeping them stashed away somewhere in a dark closet - they need room to breathe! And that way I don't forget what I have.


One of the first to show up for the Open Studio was Susan, a good friend and collector of many years. She brought her friend Christine and Christine was instantly attracted to this painting of Newport, Rhode Island...

So she took it home. She and her husband spent their honeymoon in Newport - perfect! I did not have it labeled Newport, but somehow she knew where it was.

When Norb and Julie stopped by, they fell in love with this oil painting.  They were floating on air as they brought it out to the car.

This painting did not sell online even though it was featured in my newsletters and on my website. I think that's because it's a local scene and only local people can relate.

Sometimes a painting has to wait for the right people to find it. But when they do, it's just the best thing!
This is another local scene. I don't know how people do it, but even when I do not list where the painting was done, they can tell. At least my local people do.

When Paula caught sight of this one, she asked me if it was Hall's Pond. Indeed it was. How did she know? I have no idea, but she connected to it immediately and now Ice Fishing also has a brand new home - at Paula's!
These cute little juncos went home with one of my painting students.


Oh, I almost forgot to mention: It was not just an Open Studio, it was an EVENT! Meaning, there was more fun to be had than just looking at artwork, although that's fun enough in itself.

Prizes! Everyone who came got to pick a piece of folded paper. Then they could read what they had won. Some won a wrapped present from THE BASKET:

Others won 10% off their purchase. There was a prize for a 5x7 pet portrait in there somewhere, but no one ever picked it. Perhaps next year. We enjoyed hot mulled cider and apple spice cake, pumpkin bread, cranberry bread and big purple grapes.  At least those of us who were not watching our calories. I can't show a picture because I forgot and now it's all gone...

More and more paintings went home with happy collectors.
Lilacs...



And a mushroom...
And an oak tree with an owl in the branches. Although that one has to be framed, so it did not go to its new home quite yet.

And lots and lots and LOTS of boxed note card sets. Did I say lots?

 And matted prints...
And more prints and more paintings. I've lost track.

Everyone wanted to meet Ferdinand and Nina!


The best part was seeing friendly smiling faces coming in the door, some of whom I have not seen in a year or two...or three. Taking time to chat and catch up. I wish my online collectors could have been there. Open Studios are fun!

OK, so why is this an ALMOST custom painting? The subject is one that a customer ordered at a specific size. No problem, she wanted an 11 x 14 inch painting of a ruby-throated hummingbird visiting some hibiscus flowers. I am happy with how it turned out. So what happened?

The problem started when we lost power here about 12 days ago due to a freak snowstorm in late October. Snowstorms don't normally cause long power outages in New England, but this one was heavy and deep and most of the oak trees had not yet lost their leaves. So the trees broke from the weight of the snow on their leaves. Those big old oaks fell helter skelter all over the power lines all over the state. A huge mess. We were without power for 10 days.

During this time, I worked on some custom paintings and this was one of them. With no way to access my emails for a while, I did not get the message that the painting was 14 inches tall by 11 inches wide. So I painted it 11 inches tall by 14 inches wide. Won't work.

At any rate, I'm now re-doing the painting again at the correct orientation, but meanwhile, here are some pics of my efforts on this one:

I only took 2 pictures while working on it. This first one shows the pencil drawing. I did not work out the composition on a separate paper for this but just drew right on the watercolor paper.

I felt very confident of what I wanted to do so there was not the problem of erasures messing up the paper surface.

You can click the images to see them larger.

I wet the background and washed in some pale colors. What is interesting is the speckled aspect of the background. Could it be because I'd soaked the paper in water from our brook (since well water was scarce during the outage)?  At any rate, I like the effect!

Next, I started on the hibiscus flowers. I love painting white flowers - there are so many colors that can be used in the shadows. If you look closely, you'll see blues, reds, yellows, violets, turquoise.

The deep magenta centers of these flowers really make them pop! Last I painted the leaves and the hummingbird.

Update: the painting is now sold! Please contact me if you'd like a print or custom painting done.

Pumpkins, Birds and Mums
Recently, my watercolor students have been painting Autumn scenes. This means pumpkins and chrysanthemums are included.

They particularly wanted to know how to paint mums which can seem difficult at first because they are a mound of color broken up into individual flowers. You may be wondering the same thing.

So, let's take a look at how I painted the mums in this scene.

When I paint a pot of mums, I begin with a wash of a single color like autumn pink, rusty red, orange or yellow. I won't use orange mums in this piece because there are already so many pumpkins and more orange would be overwhelming.

To the left, you see a dried wash of pink where some mums will be. I find it helpful to draw in some circles to define the individual flowers. Note that the circles are narrowed to ellipses at the top of the mound.

Then I also add some circles to the yellow mound:


Now the mums are ready for more detail.

So I wet the pink mound with water and drop in deeper color on the shadow side. This rounds out the form. If I determine where the light is coming from before painting, I will always know which side is in shadow to keep things consistent.

And I'll add shadows to the yellow flowers too.

When the shadowing is dry, I add some green leaves. The flowers are not totally a solid mass, so the green will peep through here and there defining the edges of the flowers.

I make sure to show rough petals on the edges since the flower edges will not be smooth. You can click the images to see this larger.

After that, I paint a bit of detail into the flowers.

Now, I'll just repeat these steps with the remaining mums.

Here is a white one with yellow centers. Notice the bluish shadows on the right.

Here is a pale pink one with deeper centers.

I don't get very detailed with the flowers and leaves, I just want to give the impression of flowers in this painting. The softness of the flowers is a nice contrast to the hard smooth edges of the pumpkins.

I decided to add some birds. The light is slanted and the colors warm in this piece giving the impression of early evening. So the birds have arrived after everyone has gone home to their suppers.

First I paint a blue jay in the foreground. I love the blue colors!

Next, I paint a little wren standing on the hay bales.


And then another little wren on the stone wall.

Once the birds and the background colors are done, the painting is complete!


Pumpkins, Birds and Mums original watercolor painting is for sale in my Etsy shop, JanetZeh.Etsy.com in the Autumn Collection. Hope you enjoyed the demo and thank you for stopping by.
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I'm happy to take custom orders!Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.
To receive my posts by email, fill in your email address under FOLLOW BY EMAIL in the right hand column and click Submit. You'll receive my posts in your email inbox at the end of each day that a post is made.

Every couple of weeks, three students arrive at my studio for painting lessons. They are great fun to have here and sometimes they come bearing gifts, like vegetables and fruit from their gardens.
One of them has gorgeous flower gardens. The last time they came for class, she trotted up to my door with a beautiful bouquet of red and yellow Dahlia flowers with a white one hiding in the bunch.

I could not wait to paint them, they were so beautiful!

But my students were more interested in painting pumpkins than Dahlia flowers which they thought were a bit complicated, so as soon as they left, I got out an 8x10 sheet of watercolor paper, set the vase of flowers next to my easel and got to work.

So involved was I with painting, that I only stopped once to take a picture of my progress:


After some contemplation,  I decided to leave the background white.  I think it just looks right, what do you think?


The original watercolor of Dahlias is for sale in my Etsy shop, JanetZeh.Etsy.com. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a lovely day!


To receive posts by email, fill in your email address under FOLLOW BY EMAIL in the right hand column and click Submit. You'll receive my posts in your email inbox at the end of each day that a post is made.

 Cornstalks and Chrysanthemums original watercolor painting 5"x7"

It's such a joy to visit a farm stand in the fall - so many treasures to delight the eye and to bring home: crisp apples, pumpkins, colorful mums and dried cornstalks for your porch or lamp post.

This scene is from a local farm stand. I had a great time painting it because of all the great colors in the flowers, the Indian corn and especially the cornstalk leaves. I'll show you how I did that below:

There are so many ways to paint the same thing. When it comes to painting subjects that are normally dull such as a gray rock, for instance, or tan cornstalks, one can look for a paint color that matches the gray or tan, but I much prefer to get colorful! There is so much more life to a watercolor when primary colors are allowed to mix on the paper rather than coming out of a tube.

So I wet the area of the cornstalks and drop reds, blues and yellows onto the wet paper. This looks a bit too colorful at this stage, but that's good! It makes a great base for the cornstalks.
Next, I add the base colors for some of the other objects. Here you see two of the mums, the pumpkin and the wooden box that one of the mums is perched on.

These are also painted wet-into-wet with lots of luscious color from my primary palette of reds, yellows and blues. Notice that no details are added yet.


Here I've added some details to the objects. I could have painted the entire piece with base colors before adding details, but wanted to see how these would look first.

I also painted some shadow areas on the corn.
Now I've added the rest of the mums and other details leaving the Indian corn and cornstalks for last.

Do you notice that, now there are more colors in the painting, the cornstalks no longer look too colorful?

You can click any of the images to see them larger.
The Indian corn was fun to paint. I added vertical lines and then just went up and down the rows to add small horizontal lines for the kernels of corn.

Then I painted in random colors of orange-red, yellow and violet for the kernels leaving some of them white. The far right corn is all deep red.
The most detail work was in the cornstalks.

But since my base colors were already there, it made it easier.  I just needed to strengthen the colors as needed and add some deep shadows and lines to indicate the dried leaves.

Aren't they much more interesting when painted this way than if I'd used a flat color?


And here is the finished painting!
Cornstalks and Chrysanthemums is sold, but you can find more of my autumn paintings in my Etsy shop.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed the demo. Have a lovely day!

To receive my posts by email, fill in your email address under Follow by Email in the right hand column and click Submit. You'll receive my posts in your email inbox at the end of each day that a post is made.

This pretty scene is from a farm stand in a nearby town. I was driving by one sparkling autumn day and the banks of colorful mums caught my eye. So I stopped and, while the crowds of people were shopping for pumpkins and flowers, I took pictures!

These mums were on a large cart with a red barn in the distance. Let's take a look below at how I painted this scene.




When working with a photograph, I select the parts that are the most interesting to make a composition. It is unnecessary and usually undesirable to paint everything in the photo.

I was not interesting in showing the sign and the wheels on the cart. So I left those elements out of my composition in order to have the focus on the flowers and the barn in the distance.

My composition is drawn on the watercolor paper. Next I paint the sky wet-into-wet and also paint a pale blue wash over everything in the distance.
The blue wash cools the area. Cool colors recede, making the distant areas appear farther away.
Then I paint in the colorful autumn trees and the barn in the distance.

The distant trees and the field are painted wet-into-wet, meaning the paper is wet with water and colors are added allowing them to blend.
The foreground pots of flowers are painted next.
Details such as the cart bed and additional values in the flowers are added last.

And here is the finished piece. Though you may not notice that the background is more blue from the initial blue wash, it serves the purpose of allowing the colors in the foreground to pop forward giving the painting depth.

I hope you enjoyed this little demonstration. "Chrysanthemums at the Farm Stand" is sold, but you can check my Etsy shop for more Autumn paintings. Have a lovely day!

I'm happy to take custom orders!Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.
To receive my posts by email, fill in your email address under FOLLOW BY EMAIL in the right hand column and click Submit. You'll receive my posts in your email inbox at the end of each day that a post is made.

October arrives and with the cool weather, you feel the urge to go North as the birds are flying South. Fall beckons you to places far from the maddening swirl of everyday life where the only sound is a brook running along a stony bed, the only sight a wild landscape alive with the glorious hues of Autumn.

This original watercolor painting is sold, but you can check my Etsy shop for more autumn art.

I'll show you how I painted this scene. It took me three tries to get this painting just the way I want it - fresh, spontaneous and impressionistic. One never stops learning as an artist!

To begin this piece, I start off with the sky, then a wash of gray over the entire opposite shoreline. This will gray down the area that is farther away giving it some perspective.

I will paint much of this piece with a wet-into-wet technique. You can click the images to see them larger.
OK, so now I just add some autumn color straight into the wet gray!

Can you see how the colors are a bit muted? The gray mixes with them on the paper to achieve that effect. This saves time trying to get the exact right colors mixed. In fact most of my colors will mix directly on the paper.
Using another wet-into-wet technique that I like, I paint the background conifers.

For this, I paint the trees one at a time with clear water, then drop in yellow and blue. Everything mixes and look lovely.

Later I can add some darker values where needed.

So now that is done, I repeat the gray process on the slope leading to the stream: gray first, then colors dropped into it.

Wet-into-wet.

Now I added some rocks in the stream and am going back to add more value, shadows and a bit of detail to the trees. Not much because I don't want this painting to be detailed.


Now for the stream. As you can guess, wet-into-wet! First blue-ish gray then drop in colors to denote reflections. It helps to make sure the reflections are directly under what is being reflected, but detail is not necessary here.


Here is the painting so far. At this point, I can tell that, unlike its two predecessors, this one will be successful! All that is left to do are the colorful trees and slope on the right.


So I paint in reds and yellows and add more values and bits of detail here and there.


And voila! Here is the painting completed. Hope you enjoyed the demonstration!

I'm happy to take custom orders!Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.
To receive my posts by email, fill in your email address under FOLLOW BY EMAIL in the right hand column and click Submit. You'll receive my posts in your email inbox at the end of each day that a post is made.

Today let's paint the Black-eyed Susans that are incredibly still blooming in a garden down the road from me even at this late date.

Though I have not seen butterflies recently as it's early October, I'm going to add a pretty one that I saw in my yard a few weeks ago.

Normally I begin a painting with the background, but this time, I just want to dive in and do those pretty flowers.
Using a wet-into-wet technique and red, yellow and blue, all the colors I need can be mixed right on the paper. Click the image to see it closer.

Next, I add the leaves. Some are in shadow and some in the sunlight.

Those that are facing the sky in the sunlight get a wash of pale blueish green since they reflect the blue sky. The leaf colors are mixed from yellow and blue. I used Winsor Blue, French Ultramarine and Cadmium Yellow.



I like the effect of dappled sunlight on flowers so I  brushed in some shadows on the petals.

Yellow has to be the most difficult of all the colors to paint in shadow. It has a very short value range so it's not possible to get it very dark.
Sometimes the yellow is more greenish in shadow and sometimes more orange. The trick is to look very carefully to see which it is.

These flowers have both green-yellow and orange-yellow in the shadows, so I add blue and red to my yellow depending on how it appears to me.


 For the butterfly, I painted it almost entirely  blue first, then when dry, added the darks and details. Now the painting is complete. I hope you enjoyed this short demo.
Butterfly and Black-eyed Susans is sold, but you can check my Etsy shop for more flower and butterfly paintings.


To receive my posts by email, fill in your email address under FOLLOW BY EMAIL in the right hand column and click Submit. You'll receive my posts in your email inbox at the end of each day that a post is made.

One of my collectors loves wrens. I don't blame her, they are sweet little birds and one of my favorites too. She has commissioned paintings of wrens for each of the four seasons. This one is the final one of that collection - she likes birches and asked for a wren in a birch tree.

Let's see how I did this 8x10 inch watercolor painting:




I start with a drawing on sketch paper and then transfer the drawing to watercolor paper when I'm happy with the composition. This allows me to make revisions and change my mind about placement without disturbing the surface of the watercolor paper with erasures. A fresh surface means sharper, cleaner edges.
With this scene, I changed the position of the bird three times before I was satisfied.

Next, I added blue washes to the background to denote the sky.

Later, I may darken the upper sky areas with more washes of blue, but for now, it's enough of a background to judge the other colors against.




The branches and leaves are done next. The client mentioned how much she likes the sawtoothed leaves of birch trees and the catkins that hang down, so I make sure to include them.





Next I paint the wren.

Since this is  fairly close up, I can add in plenty of detail to the bird.

You can click any of the images to see them larger.









Here I'm adding background trees to the bottom of the painting.

I use more blue, muted colors to make the background recede and the foreground leaves come forward. Blue is a cooler color than green. Cool colors recede and warmer colors advance. This is called "Aerial Perspective" which has to do with atmospheric properties.



Next, I work on the birch trunks. I've determined that the light is coming from the right, so I paint shadows on the left, let that dry, then paint in the details of the birch bark.










After making a few more adjustments, the painting is finished. Way up high in a white birch tree, a little Carolina Wren enjoys a beautiful summery day.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the demo. Below is the collection of four seasons of wrens. What a great idea my collector had, don't you think? You can see my bird paintings in my Etsy shop, Zehland.Etsy.com.



I'm happy to take custom orders!Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.

More Autumn leaves! I painted these two small watercolor paintings of oak leaves and maple leaves using the same color palette for both: russet, golden green and orange.
They make a nice pair, don't you think? A great way to decorate for fall. Each painting is 5"x3.5". They'll fit a standard frame with a 3.5 x 5 inch mat opening.

Currently for sale separately in my Etsy shop: Fall Maple and Oak Leaves

I'm happy to take custom orders!Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.

The beautiful and rugged coast of Maine at Perkins Cove is the inspiration for this painting.
I've painted this scene several times but this is the first time in the Fall season. I began it as a demonstration of crashing surf for my watercolor students, then added autumn foliage as it is part of my Autumn Collection.

I'm happy to take custom orders!Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.

Here are a few more paintings from the water lily pond at the Dole Plantation's botanical gardens in Hawaii. I like the painting above for the suggestion of colorful koi fish swimming just below the surface of the water and the little ripples made when they come up for food.

Below, is another view of the pond, this time with emphasis on the reflections and quiet ripples around the flowers and buds.



Hawaii Water Lilies #34 and Pink Water Lilies #33 go very nicely together and can be found for sale in my Etsy shop. They are #33 and #34 in my Tropicals Collection.


I'm happy to take custom orders.Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.

To continue my Autumn Collection, here is a painting using Japanese Maple leaves as templates. They have such a pretty design as they are, and their deep burgundy color is lovely. In this piece, I saved most of the color for the background allowing the leaves to show lighter against the deeper colors of autumn.
Below is a video so you can see how I painted this.

Painting leaves using real leaves as templates is fun and easy. I've had some requests for a video on how to do this, so here you go!


If you try this, let me know how it turns out for you!

• Japanese Maple Leaves Autumn painting is for sale in my Etsy shop, JanetZeh.Etsy.com

More birches! These two are very nice together and, in fact, I painted them at the same time with the same palette of primary colors - one that works especially well with autumn paintings: cadmium red, french ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow.

The scene to the left is inspired by a view that I like in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There is a mountain road that twists and winds through the mountain range from East to West called the Kancamagus Highway.

Along this road on the eastern portion is a stony river. You might see it behind the trees along with a peek at a mountain top in the distance.

White paper birches line the roadside in many places like in this painting which is 7"x5" painted on handmade watercolor paper.







Paper birch trees, with their bright white bark that glows in the sunlight are a favorite of mine. I enjoy painting these lovely trees especially in autumn when the maples and oaks lend color to the background.

To the right is a grouping of four birch trees also 7"x5" and painted on handmade watercolor paper.

Both of these Birch Tree Paintings are part of my Autumn Collection and are currently for sale in my Etsy shop.

Just HAD to paint this scene of a water lily from Taylor Pond at the local nature preserve. The lilies bloom so prettily there, and when I caught sight of this beauty, it took my breath away...the blueness of the pond reflecting a clear late summer sky, the little beadlets of water on the edge of the lily pads, the pure whiteness of the flower, the little ripples and reflections on the surface. These kind of things excite my paint brush!

White Water Lily, a 5"x7" original watercolor is for sale right now in my Etsy shop.

I'm happy to take custom orders!Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.

This is Cassie, the adored pet of a friend of mine. I'd long meant to paint her picture, but just finished this 5x7 watercolor today.  She is such a pretty kitty and a very sweet one too!

After Hurricane Irene blew through here, there was not much else to do but paint for three days as there was no power. Many roads were closed as well and some that were open were really not very safe with trees hanging on the wires right over the road. So it was a great time to stay in the studio and catch up on pieces I'd been meaning to do. This is one of them. I hope Cassie likes her portrait!

I can paint a custom pet portrait of your dog or cat. See more samples of my work at ZehPetPortraits.com

A quaint harbor in remote Plockton, Scotland was the inspiration for this painting. The harbor is on Loch Carron, which is an inlet from the sea in the rugged northern part of Scotland.

I painted this piece to demonstrate to my watercolor students how reflections are made when broken up by movement in the water. The yellows, russets and greens of early Autumn in the trees along the shore make colorful reflections, don't they?

The original painting, "Autumn Harbor" has been sold. Check out my Autumn Collection in my eBay store to see other fall paintings currently available. Thanks for stopping by.

The apples are red and ripe in this 8"x10" watercolor of an apple tree in a field. It's that time of year again to go apple picking. Just think of coming home with bushels of delicious, crisp, juicy fruit to make apple pie, applesauce, apple cake...and eat apples just as they are straight from the tree!
In any case, that must be what has inspired me to paint this piece.Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have some yummy apples to pick where you are.

The original painting is sold, but you can contact me if you would like to order a print.

Paper birch trees are stunning in a natural setting, especially when there is some fall color as in this scene. In this painting, the white bark of the tree trunks is enlivened by some bright maple leaves from a young sapling growing near them.

This piece was inspired by a group of trees along a mountain path. The trees against the bright autumn leaves caught my eye while I was climbing Mt. Chocorua in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

This painting has been sold. Check my Autumn collection on eBay or on Etsy for others available for sale.
I also have some autumn landscape paintings in the landscape section of my website: Landscape paintings.
Looking for something special? Click here to contact me for a custom painting or to have a print made of a painting you like.

I think I'm on a roll with painting birch trees. These are some that are just down the road from my place. This view is looking up a bit into the trees. The scene is set in early fall with the leaf colors just beginning to turn.

Check my Autumn collection on eBay to see if this painting is available for sale. Thanks for checking out my newest painting and have a lovely day!

Ooh! I could feel it in the air today... a cool, crisp, blue-sky, breezy kind of day...a few leaves fluttering down. Yes, autumn is in the air even though it's not yet here.

So I painted an autumn scene that was inspired by a path around a lake in New Hampshire, one of my favorite places to be at this time of year. Paper birches are abundant in that area and so pretty with autumn foliage.

The original painting has been sold, but you can contact me to have a print made or you can find more of my autumn paintings in my Autumn collection.