Inspire Me Thursday Challenge: Word Art

I spent the weekend starting and stopping a number of "serious" attempts at this week's challenge. I kept getting tangled up in the metaphorical and conotative connections between words and the things and ideas they represent. Finally, I got a little silly with this challenge and played like a kid with my gel pens. I am reminded of one of my favorite lines from an episode of the television series Northern Exposure: "Words are a heavy thing . . . they weigh you down. If birds talked, they couldn't fly."

Inspire Me Thursday Challenge: Abstract

This abstract painting began as an almost-discarded piece of watercolor paper on which I'd done some color swatches when I was working on another piece. I recycled it into the basis for this challenege.

Inspire Me Thursday Challenge: Faraway Places

"Vacation in Paradise"
I found this rather uninteresting photograph taken from a footbridge across an unidentified river. I altered it by soaking the photo in water, sanding some of the surface areas, then adding color with Lyra watercolor crayons, which I mixed and dispersed with my Niji brushes. I mounted the photo on a piece of cheap watercolor paper for stability.