Author Archives: Sheila

3, 4, 5, 6

#5, 4 x 4 Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

#3, 4 x 4 Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

#4, 4 x 4 Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

#6, 4 x 4 Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

Experimenting with color combinations seems to be my fall back. I watched an artist using Green Gold in her work, and I had to try it. Now I am not so sure. It seems sort of neon when scanned. And it is “dirty” looking if you are heavy-handed with it.

You can see in #6, at the top of the green gold, I had too much pigment on my brush. From these little experiments, I have learned I will need to mix a batch of this color, so I can be sure it is completely diluted and fully mixed.

Another color I fell in love with is Quinacridone Gold. Simone Nijboer often uses it in her work, and I love how her palette pops. Turquoise, Q. Gold, Black and white. With this color I find that it scans close to neon as well. Brighter than it seems in person. And it can look a little “dirty” as well. And maybe that is not the right word.

Both Green Gold and Quinacridone Gold are intense. I might be more fond of them in smaller quantities. I do love them on the palette, and wet on the paper!

Missing Pieces

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Layers. 4 x 4 Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

I sat down Thursday, thankful to have paper and paints in front of me. Ahhhh. In my mind, a recurring thought to do simple abstracts. Different, new. With collage maybe.

Funny the first piece is a view of the hills. Next one, yes simple, and a slightly different take. But still, something I have done before. Well, I wound up with 11 of these small starts.

Leslie’s January 30 day challenge has been cancelled. I am relieved, and a little sad too. I will miss the daily conversations with friends. I decided I will still try to complete 30 pieces this month. Small 4×4’s. To keep it simple (cue the laughter). But sometimes small is more difficult than doing a larger piece.

The Liberate Your Art postcard exchange has also been cancelled this year. I am planning on sending cards out anyhow. Any LYA’s willing to join me in a swap? If I have your address from last year, you are on my list 😉

That is a few months away. In the meantime, I have signed up for the next round of Love Notes. Thanks Christine for the reminder! In this exchange, you are paired with one person, and send them a postcard each week for three weeks. Looking forward to creating cards!

So that’s what I am up to this weekend. How ’bout you? Hope it’s a great one!!

Lost And Found

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Yo No Se. 8 x 8 in. mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

WIP, additional layers. 8 x 8 in. watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Yo no se. I don’t know. I still don’t know what to make of this. One step further though. I think it is still a work in progress. It will have to gel awhile. First piece of the year. Crossed one unfinished project off my list.

This started with layers of watercolor back in October. I kept seeing a dark tree. There are many images of trees online, so I thought I was just channeling something I liked on social media. But it stuck. So I took a sheet of old music, and carved a tree. I added indigo watercolor, and some lines for texture.

The sheet music was a gift from my good friend Christiane Drieling. A wonderful, amazing surprise. An old book of Schubert music. Christiane creates wonderful collage stories using old papers.
Her blog is a treat if you haven’t seen it.

Schubert Book.

I searched for two days for this book. Hid it away, cleaning for company. Well, first I looked for the photos I took when it arrived. Couldn’t find those, so I needed the book. Yup, neat freak lost it. I mean, there are only so many places it could be. I knew I was probably looking right at it. And I was. It was exactly where it belongs. With art pads and papers. The book is falling apart, so I put it in a manilla envelope.

If you are on Instagram, you have seen the next two images. Just for fun.
My best nine Instagram posts. Six of them are from the #100dayproject.

Best Nine of 2018. Sheila Delgado

My Year of Colour. The app pulls color from all your Instagram posts. Artwork and photographs. It surprises me that there is such a small amount of yellow. Ha ha.

Year of Colour 2018. Sheila Delgado

We waited all year for snow to fall. It was a white New Years Eve.
Snowed 6 hours, slow and steady.

First Winter snow. SMD

The mountains were hidden in clouds, when they started clearing it was really pretty.
The hills had matching cloud cover.

Clearing up. SMD

Sunset the following day. The hills looked like iced oatmeal cookies.

Mingus winter color. SMD

The Year

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1910