Author: Karen Hilliard Art

I truly love watching these bees work the flowers. They have such a drive and dedication that many can learn from just by studying them. Number 6 in the series is a similar painting to Number 1, however this image represents the flower as it started to get older. You can see the petals behind the bee have curled and do not appear in this painting as they do in the first one of the series. The bee is in a similar position. The painting was inspired by a zoomed in version of a photograph I took of 3 bees on one Sunflower. They were flying around and landing in such a fascinating way for over an hour.

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Seeing the pollen get ruffled on the hairs of the bees is a joy to watch. The yellow dust flies in the air and sticks to the scopa and legs of these wonderful creatures. I made a video using time lapse on my phone and later realized the video appears to be at the same speed of a bee as it is working. I was very lucky to capture so many amazing pictures to choose from for my paintings. Even after the photographs were taken, I used the computer to take an even closer look at my subjects for these works of art.

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Number 7 in the series is the other side of the flower from Number 6. I chose to paint the other 2 bees on the flower to show how they were working equally as hard as the first bee. The center of the flower’s color palette changed to lighter hues and more water was added to dilute the color. The angle of the flower and perspective of the bees is different from its counterpart. I decided to leave the whites down the backs of the bees to show their shiny reflection of the sun. They were having fun crawling around in the pollen.

Thank you for reading about the bees adventures. The last days of the sunflowers are coming to an end and I am very happy for the ability to document their life through watercolor. I am glad to have added these to the Tiny Paintings category on my website and my small works portfolio. If you have any stories you would like to share about your own garden, or flowers you love, please email me from my Contact page. https://khilliardart.com/contact/

I would love to hear from you!

-Karen Hilliard

I decided to take a break on the Sunflower Painting Series for a few days while I ran around completing errands. “Persistence” the newest large piece I finished got accepted into the Nevada Watercolor Society Fall Show. Luckily I had just received “I See a Horse” back from its debut in the Green Mountain Watercolor Exhibition. This was fortunate because the paintings are both 15” x 20” and I was able to have them changed out and use the same frame for the upcoming show to save money. The blog is titled “Persistence and Entering Shows” because it takes persistence, dedication, and patience when showing part of yourself through your paintings to be judged by others. 

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These shows have many people who submit their work and that alone is an intense feeling. I found years ago to enter, then try to not think about the outcome, and just be excited if I got in. After the judging is narrowed down and they decide how the show will flow together, then they send the winners an email. The people who do not get in receive a different email saying “Unfortunately…We regret to inform you…” and this can be hard to read. I wanted to write this blog to say to keep trying. It is okay to not be accepted because that means another show, person, gallery, etc. is just waiting to see your work. 

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For example, I had entered “Moon Wizard” into a show and it was rejected, then a year later I entered the same painting into the Green Mountain Watercolor Exhibition, and it was accepted. “Rooster in the Wood” has been in 2 shows and just got rejected from the Vermont Watercolor Society’s Fall Show, while another one of my pieces was accepted. The people viewing the work have to decide how the show will flow as an entire entity, altogether, as one. Keep believing in yourself and take the wins when you get them. When I was in school we had a guest speaker who came with a very thick binder. Half of the binder filled with her rejection letters and the other half her acceptance letters. This stuck with me and sticks with me today. I started a binder of my own and it helps me to remember to keep pushing forward. There will always be both rejections and acceptances.

I am grateful that my current painting was accepted and look forward to the show. Thank you for all of the support that I have been reading on Facebook and Instagram about the newest work of art. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to write comments and like/love my posts. I hope you all have an amazing Wednesday. If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me via my Contact page https://khilliardart.com/contact/.

-Karen Hilliard

I think what I love most about sunflowers, other than how happy they make me feel, is all the different ranges of colors they can have. We were lucky enough to grow a red sunflower with a purple stem and beautiful greenish leaves in our garden. This sunflower blossomed alongside our larger yellow flowers. The bees were just as interactive with this one, however, the dark center showed little contrast with the bees. I decided Number 4 in the Sunflower Series 1 would be our wonderful red flower.

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Upon this decision, I had no idea how many different colors would grace my painting palette. I had to bring out another palette case in order to reach the values of color this sunflower demanded. I used 5 variations of red, 2 yellows, 2 greens, brown, blue, and 2 different size paint brushes to complete this 4” x 6” Tiny Painting for my website. I chose to use a larger paintbrush this time to work the preliminary space of the center and the petals. Then, I went back in with a size 2/0 brush for my detailed work. Normally I use the 2/0 for the whole painting but I wanted to try something new. After many layers, and detailed work, I am pleased with how this painting turned out. I decided my next one would be yellow so the website felt fluid with color transitions. What do you think?

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Number 5 in the series is an opened up representation of the Number 3 flower that grew right next to the red one. This sunflower bloomed later and opened halfway. It took a whole day to fully open. I love the change in color from Number 3 to Number 5. I can really see the effects the bees had on the flower when they pollinated it. The seeds changed to a darker brown, almost black, and the paint I used had more contrasts of yellow than the first painting. I tried to show the paint tubes in the video I made that will be posted this weekend on my YouTube channel if you would like to see it. For now, I just posted videos 1-4 of the Sunflower Series, see the link -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN8ROdnQZTU

Thank you for wandering through the weeds with me to find these beautiful sunflowers. I hope you enjoyed our adventure and the painting process videos posted on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Please let me know your thoughts by sending me an email from the Contact Page. https://khilliardart.com/contact/ Have a great weekend!

-Karen Hilliard

Painting large and small paintings at the same time is fun and difficult. Right now, I am working on the Sunflower Series 1 small works on paper. While working on these Tiny Paintings I have simultaneously been working on two 15” x 20” pieces. “Persistence” is a large painting of cactus flowers from Valley of Fire and has a cheerful palette of color. “Between the Lines” is the same size painting of a fallen tree on Mt. Charleston with cool and dark color patterns. As I worked on Number 3 of a beautiful and sunny flower, it was challenging for me to get back into the mood to paint my larger works of art.

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Number 3 in the Sunflower Series 1 Tiny Paintings was interesting because the subject is a sunflower opening up halfway. I truly enjoyed the colors of light and dark used to emphasize the contrast between the opening and closing of petals. This small work of art took many layers for completion. The center of the flower was particularly intricate using a pointillism technique to add texture. I chose cerulean for the background to highlight the sky overhead. These colors were similar to the painting “Persistence.”

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These cactus paddles were painted by using comparable green hues to the small works series. I tried to place the emotion of calmness my husband and I feel while we look at the cactus and flowers. As the sun rises over the valley it casts amazing light on the sandstone throughout the trails. I enhanced the light of the early morning colors before the shadows grew really strong against the rock. “Persistence” is the title to show how desert life consistently tries to survive despite difficult circumstances.

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I needed to remember this word while switching to “Between the Lines.” This painting has taken me many months to create. Sometimes I get intimidated because I do not draw the composition out prior to the painting. I like the authenticity of making something new everyday and tying it altogether for the ending product. I remember every feeling, thought, movie, song, and anything that inspired me while painting. As I worked on this painting I thought about doodling in my notebook in high school with my ink pens. I remembered to just breathe and follow the lines. After this, the colors came and the painting grew. I am grateful to be able to paint different pieces during the same month and feel inspired by the difficulty this presents.

Thank you for reading and looking at my new larger works of art. Feel free to email me any stories you may have about multitasking and how you handle challenging moments. You can contact me at https://khilliardart.com/contact/ I look forward to hearing from you!

-Karen Hilliard

Waking up every morning to the sound of buzzing bees is amazing. These creatures tirelessly do their job of pollinating every ounce of the sunflower. I was lucky enough to get some photographs of them in flight and landing on the flower. They move quickly, so I was very excited to capture such wonderful moments. As I zoomed in on the photographs I could see the fuzziness of the bees. I wanted the first couple of paintings in the Sunflower Series to show this excitement.

Number 1 in the series is a close up of the bee working and taking care of the plant. The bee dug it’s head into the shoots and pollinated each one. I love watching them work. I chose to use the same colors in the flower for the bee to show it’s natural camouflage. The pollen dusted the bee and top part of the flower with a brilliant yellow. I chose Lemon Yellow from Windsor and Newton Professional Watercolors to show the fluffy pollen look. I had so much fun painting this bee and decided the next painting would be an even closer representation of another bee.

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Number 2 in the series focuses on a bee with pollen packets on its legs. I was fascinated that the bee could continue to fly and continue its job while being weighed down with pollen. I painted the object larger than it is to show its cute little face. I was able to zoom in on the subject and see all the tiny hairs on its head. Creating the face of this bee was my favorite part of the painting. I also enjoyed making very thin lines with many different colors to show the texture of the petals.

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I hope you are entertained by the videos I have been posting on Facebook and Instagram of the process in these paintings as well as enjoying the paintings themselves. Please contact me at https://khilliardart.com/contact/ and let me know your thoughts on the blogs, paintings, or videos. I appreciate you taking a walk with me through my garden and marveling at the bees. Have a wonderful day!

-Karen Hilliard

My husband found several old seed packets in a box when we moved. He took these seeds and sprinkled them all outside in a small patch of dirt. Among these were sunflower seeds. Last week I went outside and beautiful flowers had bloomed at the tops of tall stems. I was elated by the bright colors every morning. Inspiration came from these flowers and I decided to take my field sketchbook outside and do some paintings.

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I am happy to share these sketches with you on the journey of one of the sunflowers. As it bloomed it started out green and closed in. A peek of yellow petals met me one morning and the next more yellow petals. The green was a very lovely yellow green with a hint of olive. I felt like I was welcoming this flower into the world by drawing, then painting, its progress. I like to use a regular Bic black pen when I do my initial sketching in a book. Other ink pens are darker, and great when in the field, but I do like my everyday Bic pen for doodling. Adding watercolor at the end of a sketch gives the drawing an extra zest of perception to the viewer.

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Thoroughly enjoying the experience from the day before, I wanted to go draw in the garden again the next morning. The subject had changed into a fully bloomed yellow sunflower stretching upward to the sky. The center was still green with dew drops from the early morning. The middle of the flower started bleeding out to lighter green, and transitioning to a yellow orange at the end of the inner circle. The petals were a remarkable golden yellow even in the early light.

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The past three mornings, the sunflower has greeted me with some new friends. There was a bee, then 2 bees, and finally 3 regular honey bees. A buzzing black bee said hello as well on the fourth day of this glorious flower’s opening. I chose to paint a series showing these interactions of life in our garden. I hope you enjoy the preliminary sketches as well as what is to come! Let me know what you think about the photographs, sketches, paintings, and the new series idea, by sending me an email from the Contact page. CLICK HERE -> https://khilliardart.com/contact/

-Karen Hilliard

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The Red Rock Canyon small works Series 1 is complete! Paintings Number 9 and 10 are both zoomed in versions of the Yucca plants in the desert. Native Americans used these plants for many things. One use of the plants were the fibers in the leaves. For the last 2 paintings I focused on the white fibers historically used to mend and make clothing for native tribes. Each painting has no pencil sketch prior to the paint application so they are very different.

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Number 9 was painted using blue and brown mixed together to make a dark shadow color resembling black. I left the white fiber hairs very carefully while covering the surface with the darker colors. When this painting looked like an ink sketch, I started to add olive and hooker green layers to emphasize the leaf sections of the plant. This painting took 4 hours and was challenging as well as fun. My husband bought me a tripod so I was able to make a video showing the process of each painting.

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Number 10 is the final piece in the series and I used a similar concept from Number 9. I left the fiber strands white and worked around them with brown and black. In this painting I decided to work the green in each leaf simultaneously with the darker colors. This painting has a lot of layers with three different types of green paint. I also used burnt sienna, and yellow ochre for highlights. These colors created the variants I was hoping for to show the difference in the leaves of the plant.

Making the videos were very fun and also difficult. The tripod was excellent and held the phone perfectly. Painting with a phone in my face, over my work, was different and I had to get used to it. I enjoyed the videos for my Tiny Paintings because they fit the space of the tripod very easily. If you would like to see the videos they are on Instagram. Here is the link: https://www.instagram.com/khilliardart/ I am intrigued to try this video idea with a larger piece. We shall see what happens! I hope you enjoyed these pieces from Red Rock Canyon and the process of the work. Let me know what you think by sending me an email from the Contact page. CLICK HERE -> https://khilliardart.com/contact/

Links to my Instagram and Facebook pages are on the top left of my website. The painting videos are on both so everyone can view them.

-Karen Hilliard

My husband and I love walking around the desert searching for pine cones. While we hunt, he looks for cones filled with pine nuts, however, does not find them. Scattered on the ground are older and younger cones that have fallen off their tree at different times. I love to see the different ages of the pinecones. Once in a while, we find one by itself along the trail probably blown by the wind. I decided Number 7 in the series would be one of these treasures.

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I painted from the center outward and the paintbrush took on a life of its own. The painting ended up being a zoomed in version of the object. I used blues, browns, and a bit of yellow ochre for highlights. I left the whites with my paintbrush by painting the space around them. The light areas are to represent sand and debris that flew, and stuck into the cone. This painting took quite a long time and I had to keep telling myself to stick with it. When I finally completed it, I loved the perspective, and decided to do another.

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Number 8 was going to be a farther away version and it ended up being even closer than the first. I don’t draw a pencil sketch before I start so some paintings are enlarged more than others. In this piece I used more brown and blue and very little burnt sienna for the center of the painting. I am very pleased that I decided to make two of these because I really like how they look together. My husband and I get very excited when we see pinecones on trails and then spend time reminiscing about our very special day.

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As I worked on these paintings, my mind drifted to the months before our wedding day and the wedding itself. We chose to have pine cones in our wedding bouquets and boutonnières. This painting reminded me of all the happy moments of drawing ideas out with my dearest friend Andrew, hunting for pine cones, and the smile on my husband’s face while we were making wedding decorations with his family. I am thankful that my mind can drift while I paint and I am able to add my emotions into each piece of art. I hope you enjoyed these paintings, and getting to know me a little bit more. If you would like to share any special memories you have, please email me. I would love to hear about them! https://khilliardart.com/contact/

-Karen Hilliard

Red Rock Canyon pops with color throughout the year depending upon rainfall. This summer we were blessed with many storms in July. The barrel cactuses had a second blooming season and the desert was glowing with color. These cactuses have gorgeous yellow flowers and it is fun to watch the bees and bugs pollinate them. In this small work series I decided to paint some close up perspectives of the delicate color variations of these flowers. They are subtle yet beautiful. I love to sit among the desert life and feel tranquility. 

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Number 5 in the Red Rock Canyon small works series 1 is a close up of a barrel cactus flower. I love the flow of color these flowers have. I used a wet on wet technique with the purple and red shadow sections. The yellow was more controlled. Then, I added colors of tan, orange, blue, and purple on top of the yellow and it allowed for nice layering. I wanted these flowers to leave the viewer with a flow of calmness. I liked this painting so much and decided to make another with a similar idea.

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Number 6 in the series is also a close up of the flowers inside a barrel cactus. I used red and blue to create the depth of shadows with a wet on wet technique. I chose to let these colors dry completely before I added the yellow color of the flower. This was a different choice than the other piece of work. As I added the yellow and orange I decided to let it dry, sit, and then layered more orange on top. I used red to detail in the lines of the cactus spines. I tried to recreate the flow of the first painting to leave a feeling of peacefulness. I am pleased to have put my emotions that I felt in the desert into these pieces.

I hope you enjoyed a close up and personal view of these flowers and next time you stop to experience any flower with a closer look. I would love to hear from you about your thoughts on these paintings. My email, Facebook, and Instagram are all on the website at the top. I also have a Contact page and it goes straight to my email. I look forward to hearing from you! https://khilliardart.com/

-Karen Hilliard

I am fascinated by desert plants and their amazing persistence to survive. On my hikes I have seen plants and trees growing out of crevices on rock walls. The tiniest amount of water can sustain a desert plant. Barrel Cactuses are unique with beautiful yellow flowers on top. In my last blog I wrote about the Red Rock Canyon small works series 1. I decided for the third painting in the series to be a Barrel Cactus.

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I went through many versions in my mind of how I wanted this painting to look. I thought the landscape of the cactus with a yucca behind it would be gorgeous for texture contrast. As I looked through the photos on my phone, I kept zooming in and saving screenshots. I settled on the top of the barrel cactus and its flowers for the composition of this Tiny Painting. The red, yellow, and green combination along with light and dark variants were pleasing to paint.

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Barrel Cactuses are beautiful and intertwined. The flowers are embedded in the needles and then bloom upward. Another plant I find interesting are the Juniper Trees. Number 4 in the series is a darker version of a different Juniper Tree than Number 2. This Juniper had more reddish and purple cones than the other painting. I enjoy painting the different perspectives of each tree and changed my color palette for the second painting. I focused on brown and blue for the shadows and then used a layer of green over the darkness.

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It is a true joy to talk, or write, about these paintings and my process. I am happy to share my love of the desert and the environment with all of you. I would love to know what you think about the paintings. Just click on the link and you will be able to review them on the website, or you can send me an email! You can also send me an email about a favorite hike you like to venture on, or where you wish to travel to next. Thank you for reading this blog, I hope you enjoyed our walk through Red Rock Canyon, Nevada.

-Karen Hilliard