Invitation to CWS State Watermedia Exhibit!

The Colorado Watercolor Society's 19th Annual State Watermedia Exhibit opens next Friday, March 5th. Juror Ratindra Das has chosen 100 paintings for this show, and I'm honored that my "Boston Harbor" is included.

So here's the invitation to join artists and guests at the opening reception, Friday March 5th, 5-8pm, at the Colorado History Museum (1300 Broadway, Denver).

Cheers!

Sunshine after rain!

Here are two more of my sketches from my last trip, using watercolor pencils. It was warm and rainy in Brazil, these scenes try to capture moments of intense sunshine at noon, and a beautiful sunset after rain... These nice looking houses were just a hundred meters or so from the sea.

It was harder to make this latter sketch, given the intense sun and the wind. Another reason to rush was that it was lunch time and my family was waiting for me...

Back from vacation!

We are just back from a trip to Brazil, to introduce our three month old to my family. It was another busy trip, with little time to paint, but I did add to my sketchbook. The scene above was a view from the beach in Coroados, Paraná. It was sketched with watercolor pencils, which proved very practical in the hot, windy weather.

River Bend Ranch: Almost Plein Air...

River Bend Ranch II, detail, watercolor on paper, 22x22 (studio version)

Painting "en plein air" means painting outdoors and experiencing the sounds, the smells, the surroundings, the atmosphere of the scene. But at 4 degrees Fahrenheit on this Christmas day in North Dakota a couple of years ago, I just had to give up the direct experience and paint from the comfort and warmth of this bay window at the River Bend Ranch Bed & Breakfast, where we were staying.

The gray, cold morning reduced everything to just a few colors, and I tried to paint the snow-covered landscape quickly and simply. You can see on the photo how I improvised an easel with a chair on the ledge of the bay window. The completed study (image shown below) sold the same day.

River Bend Ranch, watercolor on paper, 10x14 (on-site study)

Later, back in the studio at home, I painted a second version (shown here at the top), based on my photo of the on-site sketch. Looking back at both images, I can see that the on-site study was more faithful to the scenery and conditions, even though I was not standing in the snow. I guess that still there is nothing like being there, even if you are being protected by double-pane glass. And if you can't be outdoors, a bay window might be the best next thing.

Happy New Year! Feliz Ano Novo!

I will likely not have an opportunity to add new posts for the remainder of the year, so I wanted to leave any new or returning visitors my best wishes of a wonderful 2010! Cheers!

Demo at the Depot Art Center, Progress Photos

In a post back in October, I described the demo I did at the Depot Art Center in Littleton. Jeff Owens attended that session, and was kind enough to allow me to share some of the photos he took at the occasion. They allow me to show the progress of the painting in more detail below:

1. Here I am describing my approach. I tried to describe my goals and decision-making process, as well as answer questions, throughout the session.

2. First washes in the sky area. I treated this demo as I would a plein air session. The photo of the scene was pasted on the wall, but the setup, speed, technique and level of detail employed were the same I use outdoors.
I used a quarter size sheet of Saunders Waterford Cold Press paper. It was not pre-soaked or stretched, I simply clipped it to my board, sketched outlines with pencil and started painting.

3. This photo shows the build up of wet on wet colors for the dark shapes of the farm buildings.
I am working here with a Rekab squirrel mop size 6. The palette is a metal watercolor box with both full pans and half pans. The colors were from Schmincke, Winsor & Newton, Da Vinci.

4. At this point, I changed to a size 24 Da Vinci Cosmotop Spin to work on the mass of trees and the details of the fence and other dark shapes that connected the left and right side of the painting.

5. I added the darkest shapes, making sure to blend them together for continuity. I worked carefully to preserve highlights, and to keep the negative shape of the figure.

6. In this photo, I'm adding the details of the figure, with the help of a smaller synthetic travel brush.

I was at the 1 1/2 hour period, so I had to rush to insert some last details and adjust some colors and values.

The final result is shown below.

Golden Ponds II, November

Golden Ponds II, watercolor on hot press paper, 22x12

This is my first painting in more than a month (finally!). I went to Golden Ponds in Longmont with my wife and our baby for a walk two weeks ago, and found the quality of light on this cool late morning irresistible. I took many reference photos and worked on this rendering in the studio over many nights.

I chose this view of the scene, with the rhythmic spacing of the trees, and the bright highlights on the grasses. A multitude of techniques were employed: soft wet-on-wet passages in the background, applications of color over ivory black on the trees, free caligraphy on the branches, watercolor pencils on the grasses, splattering with water on the pond... Definitely fun to experiment with all these techniques.

Here's a detail that shows the varied approaches to the different areas.