2024 Valentine Watercolor Postcard Sampler

This year, I painted and mailed over 50 valentines, and was in advance of an April lumbar spine surgery. That was something different that I might write about soon. In any event, here are a few cards I painted and mailed to family and friends. The postcard mailing was finished in time to ship first to the USPS station at Valentine, Texas, for get 2024 special Valentine postmark. 

The fun of painting these watercolor postcards comes from them being a small-size "canvas" on which to work.

The postcards are produced by Tumuarta, sold on Amazon, and are 4" x 6". They respond well to the paint and water. The collection for Valentine's Day were then mailed in an A5 envelope with a Tamoe River half sheet liner. I decided to place in an envelope to help protect the cards. In the past, we've received mail that were exposed to some rain during the delivery process. Although that happened many years ago, I've also wanted to be careful when mailing, especially sending a large number of letters. 

All postcards for this project were painted with Daniel Smith watercolors. Brushes used were from Rosemary & Co, based in Cowling, North Yorkshire, England. My favorite of her brushes is the Series 772 Sable blend dagger. A small downside is that the brushes are shipped from England, and in these days of 
 

Sometimes you need to get away from it all.

And sometimes, it's time to return and be part of the larger world. 

Between the first of 2023 and February 14, I painted many watercolor sketches to give to friends and family for Valentine's Day. The bulk were mailed around February 7, with one mailed after the day. Here are a few of the paintings I made into cards. About half were actually painted on watercolor paper postcards. But, due to the weight of the paper, I chose to locate envelopes that the cards would fit into and mailed them as first class letters.