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.