Relaxed, 12x16

I love watercolor....and I greatly respect anyone who can do it well....which I don't think I do.  It takes more patience and thoughtfulness than I possess.  I think it's my ADD.

This portrait was an accident from a few years ago but I've always kind of liked it.  It was one of those 20 or 25 minute gesture pieces that pretty much painted itself.  Actually I was off getting coffee when my brush started in.  By the time I got back there wasn't much for me to do....luckily.  Think I lost that brush somewhere....

'Everyone Can Draw.  Yes, Even You' is the title of the drawing course I begin teaching at the end of the month.  This is learning to draw without the pain.  My courses are all 'no fail' courses.  Just having the courage and interest to show up makes you a success.  Find out more about this class and others at the Winslow Art Center site.

Spring Snowballs, 14x18

Flowers can be so fleeting that several Springs can go by before I get around to painting certain ones.  It has taken a few years to get around to painting snowballs again.  My friend Debbie showed up and took some progress shots....thanks, D.  I'm sharing them below so you can see the steps.

In this painting I drew a little first.  Another demo, but one in which I didn't draw, I posted  HERE.

A few things to note:  When the flowers are drawn in they have square edges that reflect the planes of their shapes.  I then put a single dot where the center of the flower is which immediately establishes which direction they are pointing.

Another is, that since this was a fairly close valued painting, the first note of paint was the value and color of the sky.  From this I could judge what the rest of the values should be to describe the flowers but still keep them in light spring colors.

The photo of the source doesn't accurately reflect values or color....and there is no sky.  The day was cloudy and very cool. 

By the way, I have a plein air workshop coming up in July at the Winslow Art Center. 

Cabin Magic, 8x10

A high powered rifle shot woke me.  It was 4:20 am and I had been asleep, parked in my van a hundred yards off an old mountain road and under a tree where I felt fairly hidden.  Slowly I raised my head just above the bottom of the window and peered through the morning fog and gloom.  Nothing moved.  This definitely didn't seem right.

I watched the road through the trees for several minutes when a man finally came into view carrying a rifle.  He slowly sauntered down the road not seeing me, I hoped.  Quietly I threw on some pants, collected my things, lowered the camper top, started the engine and drove off.  Getting to the main road without seeing the poacher, I felt much better.

It was the beginning of a magical day several years ago when I had decided to paint my way across northern Washington and end up at our cabin in Montana.  Coming down out of the mountains the Pend O'reille river wove its way south.  The rising sun lit it's surface and backlit the eastern mountains so I stopped and painted it, finishing about 6:30 am. and drove on.

I did three paintings that day and this little study is the only one that I decided not to sell....the others sold quickly.  Every painting fell off the brush without effort.  This rock is just outside our cabin and was lit by the setting sun at the other end of the day.  It is loosely painted with little attention to fine detail yet there is something about it that contains many of the things I find satisfying.  Varied brush strokes, interesting color, thin and thick paint, transparency of color and a feeling of movement and energy.  The paint, in and of itself, is compelling.

I puzzle how some days, in many areas of our lives, can just be effortless with everything falling into place....and others the exact opposite.  How does that happen?  What do I need to do to make it happen more often?

Maybe there should be an awakening gunshot every morning....

On Quitting Painting, Again...

Gillian gave me a call about a week ago and we went out to a familiar painting spot.  Lured by these rocks I just sat down and painted.....seemed like a good way to explore cool colors on a gray day.  It took G a while to find her subject ... me, and her efforts can be found HERE.

The other day a couple people in class said they felt so discouraged about trying do to a portrait that they wanted to hang it all up, just stop painting.  I responded in an email with this:

On quitting painting.  Like I said in class, I've done it a thousand times….I did it just yesterday when I was painting in Roslyn in a wind storm so strong that I had to take off my belt and tie my easel to a street sign.  After chasing it for twenty feet I tied my hat to my head.  There was dirt flying in my paint.  The board I was painting on was vibrating in the wind…..and the painting became a flop.  My pants fell down.

I quit.  Gave it up.  Mentally I gave away all my painting gear and books and burned every painting.  Decided to just sit the rest of my life.  Safer that way. 

Today I was out fixing the painting and trying to figure out how I had gone wrong…..posted some stuff in my blog and ordered some gessoed linen.  You see,  I've started painting all over again feeling like an absolute beginner a thousand and one times…..

Rest of the Clowns, 6x6

Do Clowns creep you out?   The comments that have come through have been that, although people like the paintings, they find the clowns unsettling and a bit scary.  Come to think of it all the comments like that are from women.

James Gurney, author of Dinotopia, had an interesting post yesterday with an image that I find unsettling....maybe this is what people are responding to.  Like the horror movies with clowns, are these the images we have unconsciously grown up with?

Interesting.  I always thought clowns were just fun....oh, well, there was that old Alfred Hitchcock movie....

Anyway.  Here are the other two clowns and we can be done with them.  They were fun to paint. Sweet dreams.....

Boat Launch, 8x10

There are some things that give permission.....to succeed or fail, to not take things too seriously, to explore, to just have fun.  Markers are one of the art tools that do that for me.  I just sit down, put pen to paper and see where it takes me.  Some drawings are so-so, some almost make it, and a few get me excited.

I've been trying to figure out what I like about this one.... I mean, it's so ordinary!  So why do I keep looking at it?

Seems to me the repetition of shapes is interesting.  I also like how the background is alluded to without being emphasized.  Mostly I'm enthused by how the light flows through this everyday scene that we would normally pass by, and that movement of light brings it to life.

A Days Catch, 10x10

Remember Noelle?  While she had a vet appointment to remove some of her feminine assets I stopped by a friends studio and then Fisherman's Terminal where, between rain squalls, I was able to paint this little study.  The task was to find color notes out of the substantially gray sky, water, background yet keep the feeling of a cold rainy overcast day.  The rain and wind finally chased me out but I think this makes an OK statement.

Noelle came through fine but I suspect she's holding a grudge....

Signs of Spring, 11x14, gouache

I uncovered this one about two weeks ago and showed it at my gouache workshop.  It was painted about this time of the year, but several years ago on a heavy watercolor paper.  With Spring popping out all over I thought it was worth sharing.....there's a similar one around here someplace that I'll probably throw in in a day or so.

The gouache workshop was fun to do.  There were a lot of people there with watercolor experience and to see their approach was enlightening.  In the past, most people I've taught have come from oils and don't do washes.  These people were having a ball learning how both watercolor and oil techniques can be combined, leaving the constraints of each of those mediums behind.  I saw some wonderful work....and it was only their first attempts at gouache.

Try it sometime.  You'll like it.

Instructional Still Life, 20x24, Acrylic

Last night I began wondering about still life painting.  It's a great way to learn to paint  (no model to pay, it stays in one place, no bugs to swat) but where did this rather odd activity come from?  According to Wikipedia and other sources, representing everyday objects with food began with the Egyptians, can be found in Roman tile work, fell out of style and was revived in the Middle Ages.  During the Renaissance and the increased interest in the natural world it experienced a great revival which seemingly hasn't let up.

While it still seems a bit odd to me, who am I to question thousands of years of people who have gone to garage sales and Goodwill for second hand junk and surrounded it with fruit and vegetables just for pleasure.   I will admit that it's a great excuse to play with paint and color and the paintings are somehow more interesting to look at than the objects themselves.

I painted this as an instructional example.  It was done in acrylic and is one of the five current setups we are using--which get changed every two to three weeks.  The next painting session will begin January 18th.

North Rustico, 11x14

It must be the nature of islands that there are constantly new surprises just around the corner. Driving along the pavement came to an end but the road continued onto the beach....when the tide was out. I actually don't know if this was Rustico, South Rustico or North Rustico as I couldn't figure out the distinctions......no matter. I parked on the beach.

I hope you can see that it was the dock I was painting with the shore sand serving as an excuse for more color. The beaches on PEI are red, almost more red than is realistically paintable. (The place down the road had great haddock.)

Diana Shyne, a fine artist, was the impetus to get us to Anne of Green Gables land. She is a long time friend and we have painted together frequently and studied under some of the same people. If you get a chance to take one of her workshops, do so.

Marker to Monotype

On Sunday was the Marker to Monotype Workshop. Participants turned their marker value drawings into prints.

The prints shown here are demos from that workshop. The still life is loosely taken from the demo drawing of the day before (see previous entry). I don't call it a good print, but it does make the point of how to reinterpret drawings.

The bottom landscape print is better, also taken from a marker drawing I did on location in the Cascade Mountains last Fall. The drawing preceeded a painting which is now framed and in a gallery.

As usual, I learned a lot from the people taking the workshop. It's so interesting to me how the same materials in different hands can yield such differing and unique results from every person. Drawings from the previous day and other marker workshops were turned into new artistic expressions. I was exhausted yet very gratified.