Randi Mackey Art

10/19/2026

When I need to thoroughly relax, I pull up watercolor artists on YouTube and watch them paint and listen to the music. I came across Liesl’s Artist Studio and she was painting a sunflower in very sheer layers. She also told us about this sketchbook that is 48 pages of 300- pound paper. It’s about 7 1/2 inches square. But it lays flat of the seams flat, so you could paint a 15 x 7 1/2 inch landscape across the pages if you wanted. I wanted to give it a good test with wet on wet, so I started this mountain landscape. (Photos in comments.) I wet the paper thoroughly and let it soak in before I even started the first wash. Then I let it dry to damp and added a second wash, and it didn’t even bloom at all. I got my washes on. I did dry into wet, and again it responded very well. So if you are looking for a less expensive but high quality sketchbook to practice in I would recommend this. On her site, she has a link for a discount on Amazon if you use her discount code and follow her link. I tried to find it on Amazon without following her link and it didn’t show up. But it popped right up as soon as I clicked her link. So that’s all for tonight. Just wanted to give you guys all a heads up on what I found.

FLUNBRATO Gutter-Free Watercolor SketchbookDiscount Code: LIESL10...

09/05/2026

Experimenting on a few small things we can paint while we wait for the salt layer to dry. Western Iowa tech Life Long Learning class.

09/04/2026

So this happened last night at the Siouxland Artists awards ceremony. This is the sea turtle I did in colored pencil. I had done one in watercolor and flipped the image to do the colored pencil.
Thank you, Mark Kochen, juror, for the lovely critique at the awards ceremony. Siouxland Artists group puts a lot of energy into this show which is much appreciated. Thanks to Missy VanEgdom for taking the photo.

08/29/2026

I spent the afternoon watching watercolor videos and painting. This little watercolor vignette is done on Ohuhu hot press, cotton top paper. The top is 100% cotton but the back side is made from wood pulp. It’s a fun paper to experiment on.

08/12/2026

This reference is from Watercolors That Glow by Debbie Friis-Pettit. I didn’t have the three transparent watercolors that she uses for this tutorial with me but I had a tiny little pallet and watercolor, Journal and a brush that already contained water. I will do it again using the three colors that she teaches with. Azo Nickel yellow, quin Magenta and Phthalo blue R/S. I didn’t try the background with my tiny little water tube brush. I’ll need to get a bigger brush to do that.

08/01/2026

I worked on a monochrome value study with Emma Jane Lefevbre’s 31 days of watercolor. This was our last day. You’ll find the available on YouTube just search her name of EmJ world watercolor month.

07/03/2026

I’m turning my late husband’s workshop into my art studio. Took nearly 6 years to decide that’s what I wanted. With the help of my friends and my kids it’s within a few days’ work to start moving in. I am so excited.

06/16/2026

It's one of those days! I want to paint but don't know what to paint. I drew a pinecone on a branch but don't want to paint it. Ugh! More photos to go through, or maybe I'll pick up a tutorial so the decisions are made for me.

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06/02/2026

I’m enjoying painting with a limited palette and I mean LIMITED. 3 colors. Nickel Azo Yellow, Phthalo Blue R/S and Quinacridone Rose.
Thank you Debbie Friis-Pettit,
www.watercolorsthatglow.com

I bought these flower style ceramic palettes on Amazon and they are perfect when I’m working on more than one painting at a time as I am now.

05/07/2026

Playing with some Iowa Prairie Rose images. I’ll pull the leaves out of the background as soon as it dries.