Lithe Birch (watercolor 13 x 19) available
An upwards look at a graceful birch.
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January 31, 2020 12:21 pm
December 30, 2017 3:02 pm
December 28, 2014 5:15 pm
Italian Heat is not my first attempt at that painting. It is the second. I made several mistakes with the first painting, most of them having to to with composition. I left too many people from my reference photos in the image, and that took away from the real subject, the biking couple at the end of the street. Having reached the conclusion that the painting was a failure, I played around with photos the spoiled painting before sketching out the second version which ended up in the blog entry below.
That left me with a poor complicated painting with great color but no real focus. So I set the failed painting aside for a while. Then a few weeks later, I got out the mat corners (“L” shaped pieces of mat board used for visual cropping) and singled out the two bicyclists. The result is Florence Bikers.
Florence Bikers (9 x 16 watercolor) SOLD
Looking at the remainder on the contained yet another painting:
Three Italians, (9 x 21 watercolor) sold
Both paintings have sold, but prints are still available. fine art print.
August 27, 2014 10:27 pm
Oxford Bike (watercolor 17 x 19) SOLD
I poured this painting at the Oregon State Fair on yesterday and spent this afternoon finishing up the brushwork. I rather like it. The greens feel very England to me.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
May 11, 2014 4:11 pm
September 4, 2013 10:59 am
Tabby's Favorite Window (11 x 14 watercolor on clayboard) Available
I often get asked at art fairs how long it takes to paint one of my paintings. It’s an unanswerable question. Some paintings take days and even repeated attempts each taking days. Some paintings just fall out of the brush in minutes. This painting just fell out of the brush. And that despite being painted at the State Fair as a demo.
The reference photo is a picture I took of a girl friend’s cat some years ago. I don’t often paint animals, but my gallery is having a group “critters” show and so I browsed my old photos looking for a suitable cat, and this tabby popped up. Now that I’ve done him, I rather like him. He will be on display at Art in the Valley all this September.
May 2, 2013 2:10 pm
Candy Clarinet (14 x 20 watercolor) $450
A portrait of a friend’s clarinet. She can make it sound like candy too.
February 24, 2013 8:22 am
Clock Cafe (12 x 16 watercolor) Available
The d’Orsay Musee in Paris, was once a railway station. The original exterior clocks now serve as windows on the upper floor. I painted one of them a few months ago. That clock is opposite the gift shop and attracts as many tourists as the paintings. The other clock serves as the window in the museum cafe giving the cafe a charm all it’s own.
February 17, 2013 12:48 pm
Rue Galande (watercolor 19 x 13) Available
Another painting taken from our trip to Europe last summer. This charming little street is close to Nortre Dame, but at least a little off the beaten path. Like many of the streets in the area, it curves charmingly.
I poured this painting in much the same manner as July in Florence. The process is much like batik and leads to clear color passages that make buildings glow.
July in Florence (13 x 23 watercolor) SOLD
Or purchase a fine art print.
February 6, 2013 1:06 pm
And Suddenly the Duomo (15 x23 watercolor) Available
Old town Florence streets are shaded lanes so narrow they almost feel like tunnels running at irregular angles to each other. The view at the end of the tunnel is often as not another narrow lane cutting the street off at not quite a right angle. But here there the streets open into plazas with startling sunny views of churches, cathedrals, bridges, train stations and castles. Walking from our apartment, the Duomo complex burst upon us in much the same way–the light at the end of the tunnel.
Another poured watercolor painting, a process much like batik.
October 2, 2012 12:30 pm
Brass Candy Trio (13 x 22 watercolor) Available
More big brass. This time I really went for the distorted shadows created by the blanket these instruments rested on.
October 8, 2011 5:01 pm
The Glow of Brass (16 x 18 watercolor on paper) SOLD
For this painting I used the very same reference photos that I used for Three Horns. In repainting this image, I’ve made several changes besides the obvious change from canvas to paper. This time I’ve kept the background quite light and emphasized the shadows and the reflected light from the horns into the the shadows. I’ve also bumped up the contrast by leaving more white and taking the darks much darker.
This painting has sold, but prints are available through Fine Art America.
May 19, 2011 2:22 pm
Triumphant Daisies (watercolor 10 x 10) Available
This is the second painting from my mirror and instrument shoot, this time from a more conventional angle. The color choice is rather more conventional too, a complementary scheme of yellow and purple with a little bit of the neighboring complements, blue and orange.
March 6, 2010 2:29 pm
Jade and Tulips II (watercolor 11 x 14) $250
This is much the same composition and color scheme as Jade and Tulips I. I lowered the tulips which causes them to stand out more than in the original version, but makes the upper line of the composition less interesting. Including more of the jewelry box increased it’s three dimensionality as did opening thing lower drawer.
The palette and work methods are the same as Jade and Tulips I.
Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.
March 3, 2010 1:06 pm
Jade and Tulips (watercolor 11 x 14) SOLD
Years ago I celebrated a new job by purchasing a jewelry box I had coveted for several years. I love oriental furniture with it’s brass hinges and inset jade and soapstone. But I find a whole room full of such furniture much too heavy. But the jewelry box was everything I loved about the furniture in miniature. And despite it’s exoticness, it looks perfectly at home on my plain pine dressers. And it has the added advantage of actually looking better half open with the jewelry hanging out than it does closed.
It took me some time to compose a picture with my jewelry box at the center. The problem is that the box’s shape is really just that, a vertical rectangular box. Compositions with the complete box were brought to a complete and boring full stop by the edge of the box. In the end, I subordinated the box to the tulips and cropped it along one edge. The dark open door of the box makes a beautiful foil for the bright tulips.
Once composed, painting the picture was relatively straight forward. I masked the highlights and then began with the tulips painting them in a various combinations of hansa yellow, hansa gold, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, and cadmium red. The leaves are combinations of the same yellows with cobalt and phthalo blue. I used the same colors for the jade necklace and insets as I did for the foliage.
I went on to painting vase and metal hinges using primarily yellow ochre, raw sienna and burnt sienna dulled with cobalt blue and cerulean blue. I added the box in combinations of burnt sienna, quinacridone magenta, and dioxazine purple.
The dresser top is layered washes of burnt sienna, raw sienna, and burnt umber. The wall yellow ochre and dulled with dioxazine purple. Layed the wall on very heavily to allow the tulips to pop.
This painting has sold but you may still purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.
