Demo at the Front Range Community College

Lunch Break, 16x12

Last month I had the opportunity to return as a guest to the FRCC in Longmont for a demo. This time I chose to demonstrate painting a street scene on Aquabord. Thanks to Camille and her students, they were engaged and attentive and asked excellent questions. They had a chance to observe how the paint reacts at a near vertical angle on this clay support, and how color can be easily lifted and areas reworked on this surface.

Aquabord is made of kaolin clay, and needs to be "flushed" (saturated with clean water) before first use. After that it accepts watercolor in a similar way as paper. Color lifts easily, so care must be taken when painting in layers not to disturb the previous application. The benefits are that corrections are easy, color can be lifted all the way to white, there is no buckling and the piece once finished can be sealed and framed without glass.

The image below is the result of the 1.5 hour demo.

The image above is the finished painting, after another couple of hours of work.

Demo Photo

Western Federation of Watercolor Societies 38th Exhibition

I am just back from Irving, Texas, where I attended the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies convention and 38th Annual Exhibition.

This meant a whirlwind of activities, such as a visit to the Dallas Museum of Art and the special exhibit The Body Beautiful, but also the opportunity to meet great artists, such as Ric Dentinger, and visit a beautiful watermedia exhibition.

The 38th WFWS exhibit features nationally known artists--Frank Eber, Laurin McCracken, Judi Betts, Ratindra Das, Carl Purcell--and was juried by Mark Mehaffey. The exhibition was beautifully hung at the Irving Arts Center, and will be open until July 7th.

This kicks off a busy Summer for me, I will be attending events, participating in exhibits and taking workshops. It was an honor to represent the Colorado Watercolor Society in the meetings, but I am glad to be back home.

Here is a photo of one of the gallery walls.

Below is a photo of Jayne Ferlistsch of the Watercolor Society of Oregon, and Ruth Armitage by her award winning painting Golden Hour (on the right).