Thursday, February 28, 2019

Bessie - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Bessie is the car used primarily by the third incarnation of the BBC's Doctor Who played by Jon Pertwee in the early 1970s. The original car used in filming was a kit car built on a British Ford chassis and is in an automotive museum in England. The car in the reference photo I used for this painting is either another kit car or an original Ford modified to honor the original Bessie. While filming the license plate read WHO 1 or some variation depending on which Doctor was using it. But the car couldn't be registered under that number officially because it already was in use by a private citizen. I left it as it appears in the photo because I just didn't feel like struggling with the problems of perspective and lettering. 

      I initially set up this post in late December since you can schedule blog posts and I like to know I'm covered for a while and all the information above already was set two months ago. And I included that information about the original car because I was afraid (and rightly so) that someone would have an issue with this painting and it's subject matter. Sure enough, some idiot on a gallery site this week spent several hours (by his own admission) researching information about the original car used in filming to try to one-up me on calling this "Bessie" while it was "so obvious" that it wasn't the original on-screen car. Sometimes - even in art - you just want to slap some people.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Tybee #2 - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Another painting from reference photos I took last summer on Tybee Island, Georgia. The three stair-stepped trees aren't inventions of mine. They're actually there. I just eliminated some of the background clutter behind the lighthouse.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Marathon - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      A Marathon cab in a dark garage. Yellows are always a struggle for me. There were times when I didn't think this one was going to make it. Then I had to deal with that black background with the backlighting. The license plate isn't misspelled; it includes my kids' initials as most of my paintings do.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Piper - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      I've been toying with portraits for a long time, trying to get to a looser, more open style. I'm very happy with this one of a minor internet celeb.