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

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).

Long Wait, Drive On

Long Wait, Drive On, watercolor on Yupo, 16x20

This is the finished painting that I started last month as a demo (see previous post). It resumes my experiments with Yupo and with urban scenes--I like the variety of perspectives and textures that this subject provides, and enjoy the challenge of portraying details on the slick surface of the synthetic paper.

The problem (or solution) is that Yupo makes it so easy to subtract pigment and repaint an area that it invites endless revision... I had started with a much simpler and more muted sky that I liked better, but the intensity of shadows and the brightness of the street color called for an intense blue sky, so I added more cobalt turquoise. It does look better in real life than on the photo.

I have several paintings and ideas in progress, I hope to start posting more often, as it is quite fun to share ideas and images.

Demo at Front Range Community College

Last week I had the pleasure to do a demo at the Front Range Community College in Longmont. My subject was an urban scene on yupo. Due to the longer drying time on yupo, I was not able to complete the painting during the class, but that was not the objective anyway. The goal was to share some of my experience and techniques for working on this new surface. During the one and a half hour session, I described both the thinking process and the many forms of paint application and removal--from the use of stamps and templates to watercolor sticks and sponges. The students participated with their comments and questions, and it was a very enjoyable time overall. The image shows the painting in progress.

Using a Pochade Box

I have been using a French Resistance pochade box for my sketching outdoors and at home. With the need to carry my paints with me around the house to keep an eye on the children or simply sketch around my family, and to be able to quickly close the sketch box and put it all away (as when the baby monitor goes "wahhh"...), this has become a convenient setup to buy me more time to paint.

The box mounts on any of my tripods, but it takes the Velbon to make it really stable. My En Plein Air Pro easel is more convenient outdoors, but to paint from the car, or a home on a table or on my lap, the pochade box works better. I carry it with me in the trunk of the car. It is pretty convenient and it takes only a minute to open it and get ready to paint, and even less to close it up and put it away.

I've been carrying a 7x10 sketch book in the storage compartment of the box, and have water, brushes and pocket brushes, and a folding plastic palette with my colors. The photos show both the use with a sketchbook, and with a loose sheet of paper, using the cover of the storage compartment as a support for a gentler angle.

The photo also shows a recent sketch of a house down the street, as seen from my back yard gate.

The Great Frame Up National Exhibit Opening

Last night was the opening reception of The Great Frame Up National Exhibit in Longmont, Colorado. Here I am posing by my paintings selected for the show. I met a number of the exhibiting artists, including several many out-of-state participants. I also had great conversations with the public and got some nice feedback on my work. It was a very pleasant end to a week that had the workshop with Ted Nuttall (my next post).

There are 150 pieces by 53 artists, and the show is open until the end of August. Here's a link to the preview of the exhibit: http://www.longmont.thegreatframeup.com/photoalbum.asp?id=462996&page=1