Snowy, Snowy Night in Wisconsin

I was having a little fun with the October project for the Watercolor Workshop group I take part in. The theme this month is to paint night scenes. Well, it was just too tempting!
It had to be done! My take on art is to paint, draw, etc. in a serious manner, but to, also, have fun, experiment and play!
So old Vincent Van Gogh and I teamed up to have some fun on this one. It is done in Daniel Smith watercolors on Kilimanjaro watercolor block, 300 lb., 10" x 14". The snowflakes were put on first in masking fluid. Then I put on the watercolor paint. After that was dried, I took off the mask and did a wash of Daniel Smith Interference Blue, iridescent paint over the snowflakes and quite a bit of the color area. It is difficult to see the effects of the iridescent paint in this photo, but it shows up on the original painting. Great fun!

We have a family habit of naming the regulars that live here with us at Tree Henge (our name for our home). We have a squirrel that tries to rule the feeders whose name is "Attila the Hungry" and whole army of chipmunks that do clean-up duty under the bird feeders. These are all named for various brands of vacuum cleaners: Hoover, Electrolux, Orick, and our newest addition, Dustbuster. Here is a sketch I made in August of Hoover on his favorite rock in the sun waiting for his turn under the feeders. This is done in ink and watercolor pencil in my sketch journal.