Demonstration This Saturday!

This Saturday, October 2nd, I and other artists represented in the Rocky Mountain National Exhibit will be doing demonstrations of our techniques, from 11am to 2pm, at the Foothills Art Center in Golden.

I plan to do a complete painting on Yupo, of another urban scene, in a style similar to the piece in the exhibit, to give people a good sense of the methods and materials used, the thinking process, etc.

This will be an informal event, the public is encouraged to ask questions and participate. The artists will be in front of their exhibit paintings, doing the demos at the same time, giving the public the opportunity to choose whom to watch. It will be a fun experience, and it is totally free. By the way, admission is free all day to the exhibition as well.

Longmont Studio Tour

This is a photo of my exhibit space at Longmont Studio Tour this weekend, taken during one of the few quiet moments when I was not involved in conversations with visitors. My display was hosted by Creative Framing on Main Street Longmont. I brought in my paintings, unfinished pieces, some of my equipment and samples of materials.

It was a great opportunity to interact directly with customers, visitors and other artists, in an environment which, unlike a solo exhibit, was not meant to be simply a consistent selection of pieces on show, but a broad display of work, materials and methods. People of all ages viewed the pieces, asked questions, were happy at the opportunity to handle some of the materials and were frank with their opinions. Painting is often solitary work, so it is great to be able to connect to the public in such collaborative way and learn what is working and what is not. I had very interesting discussions and obtained valuable feedback. I am definitely encouraged to paint more, share more information and plan future exhibits.

A big thank you to all who visited. I hope to see you again in future events!

Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Reception

Here we are again, Miguel Lucas and I, posing by my painting "Parallel Lives" and photographed by my wife Christina at the RMNW 2010 Reception in Golden, CO, on Friday evening.

Congratulations to the Foothills Art Center: The exhibit is beautiful and the reception was a very nice event, well organized and attended by many. Artists and visitors were entertained with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, live music and the award ceremony, and of course the art-- beautiful, intriguing, varied, inventive, colorful or moody, abstract or representative, in acrylic, watercolor, gouache, casein, collage, and mixed media.

Carole Pickle of Emmaus, PA won First Place and 11 other artists received awards.

The show is not to be missed! There are 80 paintings, selected by jury Judy Morris out of 602 entries, including works by Cheng-Khee Chee, Ratindra Das, Mel Stabin, Z. L. Feng, Jonathan Frank, Frank La Lumia and James Toogood.

Right after the award ceremony, we left and headed to Longmont to catch the second half of the Longmont Studio Tour opening reception. We got to the Muse Gallery quite late, and were surprised to still find lots of people there. We hear the event was successful with lots of attendance and some sales.

This is just the first of the events, the gallery is offering a preview of the open studios weekend later this month, with a sample piece of each of the 60 participating artists, but more activities are scheduled.

These were too great opportunities to chat with fellow artists and art lovers, appreciate great art and spend an enjoyable evening.

Invitations: RMNW 2010 and Longmont Studio Tour

The Rocky Mountain National Watermedia 2010 Exhibit will open this Friday, September 10th, at the Foothills Art Center in Golden, Colorado. The show was juried by Judy Morris and her selection of 80 pieces includes works by well-known artists such as Z.L. Feng and Mel Stabin. The opening reception and awards ceremony starts at 6pm. More information at: http://www.foothillsartcenter.org/

Also at 6pm on Fridayis the opening reception and Preview Exhibition for the Longmont Studio Tour, at The Muse Gallery, on Main Street Longmont, Colorado. 60 artists will be showing at the preview exhibition that runs through the end of Longmont Studio Tour on September 26. More information at:
http://longmontstudiotour.org/

I plan to attend the RMNW opening and stop by the Preview Exhibition opening on my way back from Golden.

Silos in Blue, a Landscape in Three Acts

Silos in Blue, watercolor on Yupo synthetic paper, 13x20 (detail)

[Note: I've edited my post on 8/20 to include the detail above, in order to allow viewers to see some of the texture and brushwork.]

First Act: "Silos in Blue" is my third attempt at painting this scene. I had often seen this farm with two large silos, in the distance, as I drove home from work in Boulder. I liked the color of the silos against the pale yellow grasses that surrounded it in the fall. So when winter was over, I hiked to a point from which I could view and sketch the scene.
Only now the scene was quite different, the grass was greener, I could no longer see the hills in the background from that position, and instead of long shadows, I had the sun high in the sky. So I did a small study on site, but added a lot of the elements I was missing, such as the color and shadows, from imagination. The result was "Blue Silos," watercolor on Arches CP paper, 6x10 inches (left).

Second Act: Some months later, I decided to do a larger studio version on a half sheet of yupo synthetic paper. I moved the slightly silos off center, and tried to create a cruciform composition by introducing two fence posts in the foreground. This second version is shown here on the left, "Silos in Blue," watercolor on Yupo, 13x20 inches.

Third Act: Early viewers kept giving me the feedback that the poles were too distracting, that the complexity of the middle ground called for a simpler foreground treatment.
I finally took the advice and changed the foreground, taking advantage of the ease of lifting or wiping off entire sections on yupo.

This is the third version of this painting, but is it THE END? ...or is this play open to a sequel? Only time will tell.

Silverton, a Portrait...

Silverton, watercolor on paper, 11x15

Still inspired by the colors, scenes and interesting characters I saw on the 4th of July parade, I decided to do another portrait.

As in my last post, of "Star-Spangled," I was trying to portray the patterns of light cast over the figure by a straw hat. This gentleman's hat had a courser mesh and let more light through, so I was also bolder in my style. I used a very direct approach, with a basic drawing and no masking fluid or any other aids. I created the highlights negatively, that is, I painted directional lines in a grid to create the highlights. I used rough paper and less softening of color transitions, in order to accentuate the ruggedness of the man and his environment.

I had intended to capture a series of photos of the different stages of the painting process, but got so intent on the painting itself that I only remembered to pause to take photos twice. I have included the resulting photos below.

The Fourth of July in Colorado

Star-spangled, watercolor on panel, 12x16 inches

I spent last weekend visiting friends and camping on the southwestern corner of Colorado, and on the Fourth of July we were in the mountain town of Silverton to watch the parade and festivities. What a fascinating event--full of all sorts of colorful characters both in the parade and in the crowd of spectators! One of the images that caught my eye was this lady wearing the flag colors, and the way her straw hat made a pattern of little "starts" on her blue collar in the right place to match her striped sleeve. She walked with some difficulty, but was happy and proud to express her patriotism with such exuberance. I captured her pose in a reference photo, along with images of many other interesting people. Back in the studio, I decided to give this vision a first try. Both the painting and the photo of it came out a little on the cool side, it doesn't speak of the heat of a July afternoon... In my next attempt, I will turn up the temperature a notch...