Steeple

Steeple   watercolor   20 x 12 

During the virus shut-down, my walking path is fairly regular...a small loop around the small community where we live.  Steeples have always intrigued me...this one just atop an abandoned medical building.  While not particularly engaging, it still represents, to me, an uplifting, a reaching toward the optimistic, the infinite. 

Originally, the background colors were very bright, leaning the work more toward the typical watercolor painting.  I could not resist the urge to pair the transparent with the opaque, so a wash of Chinese White was applied to the background, quieting the sky and moving the structure to the forefront.  I am not quite sure I am happy with this decision, but the sky area is now more akin with what we experience here in northeast Ohio.  I definitely have an allergy to happy happy skies. 

Over the years, I have also some to dislike, in my own work, the more primary application of paint to replicate shingles and bricks. So, in this case, the end of an eraser was dipped into a giant puddle of paint, creating a more secondary, chaotic and imperfect application. 

I am pleased with this more interpretive consideration of the subject.

Switching Gears

Fistful   watercolor   6 x 9

from oils to watercolors.  Where I live, in Ohio, the year is divided into four distinct seasons...weather-wise, food-wise, and attitude.  This I love.  Because my painting loves are equally divided between oils and watercolors, I switch up mediums seasonally.  I have tried to do both simultaneously and it just doesn't work....for me.  Different feels, different clean ups, different approaches.  Too confusing.

Enter Spring.....I decided to do just a couple of small ditties to whet my watercolor appetite and to rid myself of the fear of the white paper.  No formal set-ups....just a fistful of blooms from our yard.  I was so happy to be painting this work and opposed the transparent pigments of the blooms with a more opaque handling of the background....just chalky like I like it.  Fistful. 

Clay Pots

Clay Pots   watercolor   19.5 x 11

are truly a sign of the season.  There are glazed pots, hand-painted pots, and  plastic pots (yuck). Clay pots and their patinas of absorbed minerals, water lines, irregularities, chips and fractures hold the most interest for me.  From the earth.  Sublime beauty that allows the plants within to take center stage.  This time of year, true gardeners (not myself) line up to purchase the most beautiful, rarest and healthiest varieties of plants.  Recently, I have even heard of minor scuffles over the highly-desired varieties, from gardeners who must must must have that particular plant....mine, mine, mine....all mine. 

Clay Pots was painted in transparent watercolor.  The background was painted with a gouache and watercolor mix.  I love the juxtaposition of transparency:  opacity.  I also love stacks of things.

Clay Pots celebrates the glory of early summer and the inherent promise of beauty within.

Fill.  Nurture.  Watch expectantly.  Enjoy.

Nude Leaning

Nude Leaning   watercolor/mixed   12.25 x 9.5

We hired a life model a couple of weeks ago for class painting.  My painting was fairly regular in its description...but the work lacked pizazz.  First I experimented with painting a loose, mid-value background.  Still pleasing.  Still boring.  I wanted texture to oppose the smoothness of the model's skin.  I wanted opacity to oppose the transparency of the figure.  After cutting a template to cover the figure, I used relief ink to print onto the background area.  The small dots were actually happy accidents....bits of dried ink that stuck to block and prevented total coverage.  What a hoot!

Experimentation doesn't always work out well.  But it always provides a thrill!

Yes...the garden

Radishes   watercolor/gouache   9 x 12

"Radishes" is a watercolor and gouache painting.  The paper was first coated with permanent white gouache, mixed to the consistency of cream, and allowed to dry.  This method allows for more flexibility in moving colors around and also provides a bit of opacity where intended without the mud that sometimes occurs when layering watercolor pigments.  I have always used it as a counterpoint in the work, i.e. juxtaposing it with transparent passages for that point::counterpoint effect.  In this case, the opaques are mostly in the background, but ease their way into the bunch on the leaves in the upper left.

The only time I have relished (no pun intended) radishes was in a brewery in Mill Valley  where they were served as an hors d'oeuvre, sliced ever-so-thinly and served with a pat of creamy butter at room temperature.  They are always delicious when painted.

One Green Gumdrop...

One Green Gumdrop   watercolor   12.5 x 9

Our class assignment was "a jar of ______".  The challenge was to render these sugary treats as they appeared behind class...as well as to describe the nature of the Ball jar.  Large background strokes of transparent watercolor were subsequently layered over with gouache...hopefully, just enough to let the color peek through and offer a bit of pastel opacity.  The polar opposites of opacity::transparency have been with me for years....I like to think that it offers the best of both worlds.  It has been said that transparency offers more of an entry, a participation, for the viewer....that which is to be.  And, conversely, opacity offering more of what is seen by the artist...that which is, that which is definite.  This is my response to the challenge.

And, as far as the green gumdrop.....why is it that our favorites are more often in short supply?

Transparency and Opacity

Summer Brie   watercolor   13.5 x 21

I work in both oils and watercolors. Each provides me with lessons that can be transferred to the other. I was obsessed with these opposing notions of transparency and opacity for years. Watercolor teaches a deftness and economy of stroke AND transparency. Oils provide creamy opacity. I love attempting both in all of my works. It has been said that opacity provides more of a viewpoint for the artist alone(what is).....and that transparency allows a window for the viewer to see more of his/her own viewpoint(what may be). This watercolor was started in my class and finished at home. It is being shipped tomorrow to the "Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts" and will hang at the Robeson Gallery at Penn State from June 11 through July 13.