The time has come

Well, it's here. I'm off to France. We'll be in the region around Toulouse, in the south of the country. Hope all my watercolor prep has done enough to let me squeeze a few out while there. Au revoir! See you soon.

Old Atlantic

So here is a painting I created last week  from a phone photo and a site watercolor I did in June with my friend and traveling workshop guru, Mike Rooney. We headed "Down East" to a small fishing village called Atlantic, which sits on the Core Sound at the very end of Highway 70, in Carteret County. It is a treasure trove of abandoned fish houses, and its small harbor houses a fantastic array of wooden fishing vessels. I managed to do 3 watercolors on this particular day, and decided to do a 16x20" oil of this blue gem. I had to eliminate the building to the right in order to get a good slice of the Core Sound behind the structure. 

 

Weekly sketches- "Art Uncorked" Kiawah Announcement

Still spending a considerable amount of time going out with my watercolors. And working oils in the studio. All are from last week. Only a few weeks left until the France trip. I'll also be down in Charleston/ Kiawah Island later this week for "Art Uncorked" through Wells Gallery. I'm honored to be the first artist up this Fall, and will be doing an hour and a half demo on the 14th. Info is on this youtube video below. 

Watercolor tries, 2

With a precious few weeks left before a trip to France, I'm continuing to produce watercolors on an almost daily basis. Here are 2 I did this past week. I am still playing with the palette of colors I want to use, as well as work on creating the right value structure to create the impression of light in my watercolor paintings. It's funny how at one moment I feel I'm beginning to grasp them, and at other times feel totally inept. In my oils, I hardly ever create a complete line drawing, instead getting some of the main lines in a composition, and then going in straight with masses of color to block in the picture. I haven't really found a way to do that with watercolor. I get antsy to start the painting part, and get in trouble with covering up lights I should have left. But the remedy I have found in any discipline is to just keep producing, practicing, and experimenting. Every failure gives you some lesson you can take away. There is always another piece of paper waiting for you.

Watercolor tries

So I was lucky enough to win the Beaufort Sister Cities mural competition in Beaufort, NC back in May. It is a great event put on annually, in which the winner gets a trip to a sister city in France, and stays with a host family for around 5 days getting a local's view of as many sights around the region as you can take. We are heading down to a Beaufort in the Midi-Pyrenees region of France, near the city of Toulouse in the south. But more about the trip in another post. 

Knowing we had a baby on the way, who would have to make the trip with us, I decided to take a stab at learning a medium I've always loved but never seriously attempted. Due to its ease of packing, I decided soon after the competition that I'd attempt watercolor on site instead of worrying about all of the weight and logistics involved with shipping or carrying my oil painting gear over there. So I pulled out my Cotman watercolor palette and a brush and began taking a small watercolor setup out painting, usually one every couple days. It soon turned into one a day, then 2, sometimes 3. Suddenly, my oils are getting hard in the studio, and I'm out slinging water. I produce and sell oils, but the freedom I feel taking out my watercolor set has gotten me so jazzed about them, I have to make myself continue painting in oils, now mainly larger sizes in the studio. I don't know if it's the lack of pressure, knowing I'm not good enough to sell them or what, but I love the look and feel of watercolor! I am addicted to the immediacy, the quality of the color, the drips and splatters, the drawing process, the speed. 

Watercolor is not called the medium of the masters for nothing. Especially coming from the direction of oils. It seems everything is done in reverse, plus there is little masking of mistakes. It's so easy to overwork them, you need a fairly good idea of where things are going to go before you put color to paper, but with all the challenges, it has gotten to me. I am a complete novice with the medium, but I am willing to put in the effort to get competent, and who knows, I may even produce some worthy of a frame one day. So here are some paintings, in no chronological order, from June through August. Some are better than others, mistakes can be seen in all of them, but each is a step to the next, and the experience is the most important thing right now anyway. Any watercolor artists with suggestions, please slip me some pointers!

It's a boy!

I have the pleasure of announcing the birth of our second bundle of joy over the past weekend! his name is Hopper... guess the inspiration. At any rate, will have a new post up as soon as I can get a few minutes. We are blessed to have him, along with our other son, Ollie! What a pair they will make. A post on my watercolor efforts is coming up.

Again with the cars?!

So this is a little glimpse at how my studio work comes together, I'll try and do more from the beginning. Before I break away from the vehicle motif for a while, thought I'd show my latest hot off the easel endeavor. This is, I believe a 55 Chevy, from the comments on Facebook about it. It's a 24x36" oil on linen panel. With subjects this detailed and on the larger panels, I usually start with a drawing on the canvas. I sometimes work on a toned canvas, but on this one I just started right in. I'll draw over the main lines of the subject with burnt sienna, and immediately wash in my shadow areas with this thinned paint as well. From there it's laying in the background tones to begin playing off the color I want to use in the subject. Now, the fun begins as I take a selection of colors from my palette and work over the car, making sure to keep values in their proper place. Once light and shade are established, work hard to keep them firmly established. As more strokes of paint go on, there is a tendency to lose that relationship, due to the nature of oil paint, and the addition of more subtle value shifts. I'll usually get to about 95% done, and then let the painting rest for a week or so. When I return to it, I have a fresh eye, and can hopefully catch any glaring miscues, though sometimes it takes another set of eyes all together to catch them. Unfortunately, painting is a lonely profession, so I have to do all kinds of tricks to become more objective. I'll flip the painting upside down, look at it through a mirror, take a phone pic and look at it in miniature, I even have a reducing lens (which looks like a magnifying glass but does the opposite). Sometimes you just have to put it out there and see the reaction to it. Anyway, the painting is resting now at 98% done, I'd say... or it may be ready for a signature. I'll know in a week or 2.

24x36" untitled for now.