watercolors
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Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Dragon Fruit, 9H x 12W inches watercolor pencils, graphite on paper, white mat and 15H x 18W inches white frame with crackle finish.
I’ve discovered a strange-looking and wonderful new fruit here in Singapore: Pitaya, commonly called Dragon fruit, is cultivated in Vietnam, but apparently is native to Mexico and South America. Possibly then, it’s imported to the U.S. and hopefully is sold in Texas – yay. I’ve seen it in the markets here but thought it was some sort of artichoke. Rarely do you find a fruit that is so large and fleshy where you don’t have to deal with removal of seeds or pits or cores to get to the yummy part. This one’s all yum, about 6″ long, very refreshing and tastes much like a kiwi, but more sweet than tangy.
Orange Milkweed
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
Orange Milkweed, Kentucky 15 x 22 inches watercolors on paper, sold
Driving from Texas to Ontario one summer I had to pull over to take photos and a closer study of the vivid orange bouquets growing beside the highway in southern Kentucky. The colors are irresistible, and this is not the first or last time I’ll portray this subject. All plants and trees contain medicinal and useful chemical properties in their leaves, stems, roots and flowers.
I looked up Orange Milkweed in the most informative books about plants, The Encyclopedia of Herbs and Herbalism edited by Malcom Stuart, which contains details about every plant I have ever sought to find information for. According to it, Appalachian Indians made a tea from the leaves to use during religious ceremonies. One common name for this plant is “Pleuracy Root”, as it is still useful to treat infections of the respiratory tract including pleurisy It is used as a diaphoretic, antispasmodic, carminative, expectorant. Color also has enchanting, supernatural energizing properties!
Bird Party
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Bird Party, watercolors on molded 140 lb watercolor paper, work in progress.
I’m not exactly sure where this is headed, but shapes were cut out of the painting, the paper drenched, folded, stretched and sculpted. Every evening just before sunset in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Grackles, blackbirds, Starlings and pigeons gather on lawns, parking lots, overhead wires and cables, roofs and trees. The event is unique to this area as far as I know, and exciting beyond words to be amongst the thousands and thousands of birds. Here is a previous piece on the subject.
Angel’s Trumpet
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Angel’s Trumpet (Brugmansias) San Antonio Riverwalk, Texas – 14H x 22W inches watercolors on 140 lb. cold pressed premium, white mat
Value study
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Angel’s Trumpet value study, San Antonio Riverwalk, Texas –12 x 16 inches Tombo pen wash on 140 lb. WC paper.
The Tombo pen is a two-in-one water-soluble marker available in colors as well as black. One tip is medium-fine and the other looks and behaves like a Chinese paintbrush, where thickness of lines can be controlled. What’s more difficult to control is that black once it’s on the page! It’s something to pay attention to when painting the colored version.
Preliminary studies are useful with watercolors because if, in trying to correct and re-work areas, the integrity of the paper is easily lost, especially on inexpensive papers. Still, on a traditional watercolor a lot can be done by adding water to pull out the dark where it’s not wanted, and push out areas of paint with dry brushes. Some places in this study have built-up 3D edges created by the paper bits because I pushed them around so much with a stiff brush to correct things, but traditionally this is not acceptable.
Actually, come to think of it, that might be interesting to deliberately sculpt the paper in strategic areas – like objects in the foreground – by saturating it with too much water, then while painting, brush the resulting paper bits into piles and mold them with a stiff brush. I may try that in the final colored painting of this scene. This proves once more that every single painting is an experiment to find ways to turn disadvantages and limitations into advantage and innovation.
Even though WC and Acrylics are water-friendly and watered-down acrylics is the method I use to start most canvas paintings, I’m noticing a few outstanding differences : 1) an off-balance composition seems to be more noticeable with WC, definitely not as correctable 2) improved attention to drawing, details and ultra-conscious 3) requires pre-planning and foresight to keep the work fresh and clean 4) commands enough confidence to swish the paint on quickly as if it was not planned.
San Antonio, Texas
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Buildings, San Antonio, Texas, 22H x 15W inches watercolors on 140 lb. acid free, cold pressed premium paper, white mat
The Campsite
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Thumbnails: 1) Value sketch using Payne’s Gray 2) Oct 21st in progress 3) finished, left detail. This is the 2nd week of the watercolor course offered by Jo Williams.
The Campsite, Maine, USA – 15 x 22 inches Watercolors on 140 lb. acid free cold press premium paper, 22H x 28W” professionally framed, dark cherry wood with brass title plate.
Red peppers and pear study 02
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Red peppers and pear study 02, 14H x 11W inches watercolors on 120 lb premium, white mat
I just started watercolors classes today with Jo Williams in Denton, TX. Watercolors are in a league of their own…that’s what I learned today. Acrylics are my favorite medium because of their versatility, and I always start out covering the canvas using watercolor techniques, but even though both have similar properties at the wateriest level, they are nothing alike. Brushing up on watercolors skills though, will positively add to confidence in using acrylics. I haven’t worked alongside others for a while either, so class critique will be really helpful too.
Red peppers and pear study 01
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Red peppers and pear study 01, 11H x 14W inches watercolors on 120 lb premium
Cedar, Stony Swamp
Monday, January 14th, 2008
Cedar, Stony Swamp, Ottawa, ON, Canada, 12H x 9W inch watercolor and graphite on 40lb cold-pressed premium watercolor paper. Framed size 26H x 22W inches.
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