Red River Watercolor Society Signature Membership

I am just back from a road trip with my family through the Dakotas, including a visit to Medora in the Badlands National Park and a paddling competition in the Sheyenne River.

I was also able to visit the excellent Red River Watercolor Society 2014 National Exhibit at the Hiemkomst Center in Moorhead, MN, just before it closed. This was a very significant exhibit for me: My painting Twin Elevators (26x20 watercolor on Yupo, shown above) was selected for the show by juror Michael Reardon and received the Jack Richeson Award. But more importantly, I am very proud to have achieved Signature Membership in the RRWS with my third acceptance into their National exhibit.

The RRWS is based in the Fargo/Moorhead area but has members from all over the country. They boast a high caliber of workshop instructors and exhibit jurors, and a great number of top level water media artists who participate in their annual shows.

Plein Air Marathon

We had a great day at the PAAC Plein Air Marathon last saturday. We started at sunrise and covered five different locations through the day, in Longmont, Niwot and Boulder. 

I had to fullfil my national civic duty to watch Brazil play at the World Cup, so I did not paint in one of the sites... but was happy with the four paintings I managed to complete.

It was my first marathon and a great experience... Fun but also very tiring, especially on such a warm day. There were 27 participants from several areas of the State and it was a pleasure to meet everyone and appreciate their work. My wife and children joined the closing get together as well. I definitely look forward to next time. 

Award at the CWS State Watercolor Exhibit

We had a wonderful State Exhibit opening reception on March 7th. Many people braved the snow to join the event, and enjoy the music, the food, the relaxed atmosphere and the great art in the exhibit.

During the awards ceremony, I had the pleasure to receive the Stephen Quiller Award from juror Carl Dalio (moment shown in the photo above) for my painting The Baker and his Shop. (Thanks to Stephen Quiller for the donation that made this award possible.) The high quality of all the artwork in the show, my respect for the juror and my admiration of Quiller all make this award pretty special.

The exhibition is open until the 30th, at the Lone Tree Arts Center in Lone Tree, Colorado, and I hope many more people have a chance to visit it.

CWS 2014 State Exhibit Opening Reception

The Baker and His Shop, watercolor on paper, 12x18

The 2014 State Exhibit organized by the Colorado Watercolor Society opens on March 4th. This is a great display of works by many of the best water media artists in the State. I am proud to have a painting selected for the show by juror Carl Dalio--I hold his opinion and critique in high regard.

The opening reception and award ceremony will be Friday, March 7th, from 5:30 to 7:30, at the Lone Tree Arts Center in Lone Tree, Colorado. A great chance to meet the juror and the exhibiting artists. The exhibit is free to the public and will remain open until March 30th.

Another from the Sketch Pad

Here is another study done without any pencil drawing on my 9x12 sketch pad. Using only planning marks made with a brush is very different from painting over a full sketch; it is not unlike painting in oils. I had used this approach before, but only in plein air and not in a series, as an exercise. I have been enjoying the challenge this represents--I have to pay much more attention to the placement of shapes of color, rather than the shapes of objects in the scene. Precision suffers, but there is a more painterly feel to it. (The photo is not great--taken with my iphone)

Snow and Mud

When nature offers you snow and mud, that is what you paint. With the chilly temperatures and limited time, plein air work gets done from the coffee shop window or from the car seat. In this case, I did a studio study but wanted to keep a plein air feel to it. To accomplish that I worked without a pencil sketch and painted fast using the same brush for most marks, and kept to a small size, 8x10.

There is a lot of construction going on near my house; I enjoy when the weather slows it down, and I think the shape and color of the machines form such an interesting contrast to the open space and mountains.
 
Tomorrow, a visit to the Passport to Paris exhibit at the Denver Art Museum!

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