Pickles - watercolor

watercolor; 2020

available; 11"x15"

      Pickles is just misunderstood. Or, maybe he's the one that misunderstands.

Alice - watercolor

watercolor; 2020
available; 11"x15"

      Another portrait/figure of Alice, a fashion blogger.

On The Go - watercolor

watercolor, 2019

available, 11"x15"

      I've been trying to do more figures that were dressed and going about regular daily activities. This girl seemed perfect, although I rarely use much true yellow. I feel like I should have used a more contrasting background color. But, maybe the lighter neutral helps preserve the light airy-ness of the subject.

Avebury - watercolor

watercolor, 2019

available, 11"x15"

      A quick landscape of the Avebury stone circle.

Alice - watercolor

watercolor, 2019

available, 11"x15"

      Here's something of a fashion portrait/figure of a fashion blogger. She has a lot of great photos that might make some nice paintings.

Wallflowers - watercolor

watercolor, 2019

available, 11"x15"

      A little summer as winter hits. I think I was drawn to the shadow of the potted plant in the reference photo. But the red of the flowers is the real focal point of this piece.

Decoy #4 - watercolor

watercolor, 2019

available, 8"x10"

      It's been a while since my last decoy painting. I experimented with leaving this one a bit looser and more impressionistic. A bit of Holbein's Grey of Grey straight from the tube - a very opaque watercolor - blended along the beak helped to bring out the contour and emphasize some dimensionality. 

      The occasional use of opaque pigments in otherwise "transparent" watercolor allows me to add a little sparkle on top of dry passages without resorting to gouache or gesso. Not that I'm above using gouache or gesso or anything else that works for a particular painting. But some people and many organizations still are quite picky about what you can and cannot use in a transparent watercolor. Some would even disallow the use of any opaque pigment if it's visible on top of a darker hue like this one. I don't want to get into a long, drawn out thing here. I don't like anyone trying to apply "rules" to art (though there's nothing wrong with placing limits on yourself as a self-challenge). But, I do try to start off with every intention of keeping a painting purely transparent even to the point that almost all of the colors on my regular palette are transparent or semi-transparent. Of course, things happen; every piece takes it's own twists and turns. In the end I always do whatever the piece warrants, not what some organization or academic demands.

Bobbie - watercolor, charcoal

mixed, 2019

available, 8"x10"

      This is a quick portrait painted in watercolor on a gouache-tinted sheet. I restated the drawing with charcoal pencil after the paint was dry to emphasize it. Leaving part of the portrait unpainted draws the viewers attention both to the painted focal point and to the abstract nature of a two-dimensional rendering.

Margie - watercolor

watercolor, 2018

available, 8"x10"

     A quick portrait from an old black and white photo. I used my new favorite caucasian flesh mix of yellow ochre, DaVinci red (or any warm red), and cobalt blue. A bit of perylene maroon (or any cool red) is used in the middle shadows. It looks much better in person. The scan always tends to add a bit more yellow, which is difficult to fix without altering the other colors. I'm still working toward photographing all my paintings. Right now this is a content, if not happy, medium.

F - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

available, 8"x10"

prints and gifts also available

      A very loose still life of a classic Nikon F.

No Place Like Home #2 - gouache

gouache, 2017

available, 8"x10"

prints also available

      Just another little gouache shoe painting. I struggled with some of the reflections and highlights -- par for the course with me and gouache. But, I think I finally pulled it off.

Tulips - gouache

gouache, 2017

available, 11"x15"

prints also available

      Starting the new year off with a little still life I kicked out one weekend. I think it worked out a lot better than I expected. I'm not quite as confident with gouache as I'd like to be. But I'm getting there.

Smoky - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

available, 9"x12"

      Just a quick little sketch with some ivory black. I never use ivory black. I've always preferred neutral tint or burnt umber or sienna mixed with ultramarine blue for more organic blacks and greys, and Payne's Gray for deep, absolute blacks. But, this reference photo was screaming for a grayscale treatment and what better way to do grayscale than with a pigment with "no color"?
      And, for general FYI, there are many more ways of mixing greys and darks/blacks including three primaries or two complimentary colors. UM blue and burnt umber/sienna are essentially complimentary colors for the purposes of mixing grey. Using two complimentary colors seems easier to me than three primaries. I try to limit all my palette mixes to two colors as much as possible anyway. And, a two-color grey is easy to warm or cool as necessary. Sometimes I even get the added bonus of a little pigment separation on the paper during drying. I think the look of UM blue and earth tones separating is one of the reasons I picked up watercolors in the first place.
      So, what's ivory black good for? Mixed with a little cool yellow, you can get some nice greens.

Natalie - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

available, 9"x12"

      Just a quick, loose portrait of a model from some glamour site. There's very little about this one I don't like -- except maybe the scan. Scanning always adds contrast and washes out some of the lighter spots, hiding much of the subtlety inherent in the real painting. I recently went through some originals and was struck at how much better many of them were than I remember them because I'm used to seeing the scanned file. I'm still trying to figure out an easy method of shooting originals with my camera. Theoretically, I should get a much better, truer-to-life image that way.
       I used a pretty limited palette on this one, yellow ochre, a warm red and ultramarine blue for the skin tones - with just a touch of permanent rose to bring the nose forward. The hair and lips needed a couple more colors and I think the background blue is a loose mix of ultramarine and cobalt. The fewer colors you use, the less chance of mud, everyone always says.

St. Paul's - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

available, 11"x15"

      This was an attempt at a very loose rendering of St. Paul's in London. It has it's merits. But it could be better. It's from a very old black-and-white photo from the '50s.

Angie #42 - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

nfs, 9"x12"

      I haven't posted a portrait of my beauty queen in a while. This one was a pleasant surprise. I thought it was going to be trash almost immediately after starting it on Fabriano Studio paper, which I have complained about a couple times before. But, a few adjustments to my normal painting method, a fair amount of loosening and I pulled out a portrait with which I'm very happy. It's loose and painterly, but realistic and accurate at the same time. It seems the unforgiving nature of this paper forced me to be more careful and purposeful in my strokes and paint application.

Oscars - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

available, 11"x15"

prints and gifts also available

      A loose still life of some shoes my wife doesn't own.

'51 Nose - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

available, 8"x10"

prints also available

      This probably should be called "Rusty Cadi Redux" because I've painted this particular image before - back in 2011 (Rusty Cadi). The original was auctioned off for the local United Way a few years ago. But I've always liked the reference photo and thought it would be fun to revisit it in a slightly looser style. So, here it is, though the style isn't much looser than the first attempt.

Red Window - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

available, 11"x15"

prints also available

      Just a quick flower-in-a-window painting. There's actually very little I would change or do differently. That's weird.

AJ - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

nfs, 6"x9"

      Here's another quick portrait in Payne's Gray. This one worked out better than the last one.