Monday, March 29, 2010

Roses Garden

9x12 watercolor, an imaginary scene not drawn but painted with #12 round on dry Canson paper. Negative leaves form a foreground of garden delights for Spring.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Windowsill

15x22 watercolor on Italia Acquerello 140 lb cold press paper of a group of fresh veggies and herbs in an imaginary windowsill. Some negative painting done with herb leaves; this was painted wet in wet using American Journey paints.

Pedro

20x16 oil commission, Winsor Newton Artisan paints on Dick Blick canvas board. All I had to use was a small brown and white old photo. My client wanted neutral tones. The photo was cropped at the waistline and only part of the sleeves visible, hence the vignette.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Belize Gallery

15x22 watercolor on 140 lb paper coated with white gesso, from my photo of an island art gallery in Belize City.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Trying to Set up a Still Life & Look What Happens

Meet little tuxedo kitty Chili who demanded to be included in a still life of an old tablecloth, a plaid napkin, my sunflower pitcher of fresh zinnias on the buffet. This painting is about 2-3 years old and is 15x22 watercolor on cold press paper.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Prickly Poppies

15x22 watercolor collage on 140 lb Saunders Waterford paper painted today. Reference pix were combinations of white wild poppies I took a few years ago but never used; a big clump of these paper thin flowers grow just down Scurry Street from the studio. I put small amounts of white tissue onto the paper using matte medium then drew the flowers when dry. Poppy centers contain latex and can be deadly and quite thorny.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Red Velvet

At a full sheet watercolor, 22x30 inches, this size is large yet impressive. I keep painting and posting more florals hoping for Spring to decide to arrive SOON. The sooner the better. These tulips were done wet in wet with 2" and 3" brushes.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Caladium Collision

11x15 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Saunders Waterford paper, DaVinci/Daniel Smith/American Journey paints. Painted today without a pencil drawing or reference, this one was done within an hour, spritzing water onto dry paper.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Sunflower Mosaic - demo for WetCanvas!

This is watercolor collage on matboard, 20 x 9.25 inches, drawn with colored pencil done today as a WetCanvas demo. I used slick toilet seat cover torn in pieces and applied with Liquitex matte medium, let dry overnight, then drew my flowers with the CP. Paints used were American Journey Midnight Blue, Prussian (DaVinci), Arylide (DV), Copper Kettle, Harvest Gold, Skip's Green, Mint Julep, Gamboge, Taylor's Flamingo Pink, Halloween Orange (AJ), Grumbacher Red, and quinacridone magenta.
With this technique less water is needed and repeated washes usually are in order to obtain correct values. At the end I drew leaf outline shapes in the dark blue background with my brush for some negative shapes.

Monday, March 1, 2010

The White Rabbit or The One I Let Get Away

Here is my little ceramic bean bag bunny in his clown suit sitting in my sunny window still life, a full sheet 22x30 inches watercolor. I painted this a number of years ago and it was my first painting to be published in Christopher Willard's book Color Mixing a 12 Hue Method. It won several Best of Show awards but I sold it and now it is known as the one that got away. But I took lots of photos when I set the still life up at our first house so should get them out and get to work. Since it is almost bunny time (Spring, remember?) thought you might like to see this.

Dry Desert Icons

30x22 watercolor on Kilimanjaro 140 lb cold press paper painted earlier in the month. I have painted this southwest landscape mission more ...