Daily Painting

I saw this structure just as I was getting on the freeway in Santa Cruz yesterday to head back home. It was so fascinatingly ugly that I had to paint it. As I did this today, I was reminded of Bill Dunn - how he is also drawn to such things, and I realize I am so influenced by him and what he might say. He had a major impact on me in my early months of painting and I am glad it was him, and not someone else. I still so admire his work.

I've been studying Kate Osborne's still life watercolors - they are simply stunning. I have tried copying a few - and it is very interesting when you try to copy something. You need to understand its history. Luckily, in watercolor, you can reverse engineer the whole process. By looking deeply at a painting, you can try to figure what was the last layer of strokes before the painting was completed, what came before that, what came before that, and what might have been the first layer. In one painting, she used a technique of blooming/maybe dry brushing that I spent all of Saturday happily trying to replicate. I got pretty close, but I don't know if that is what she actually did or she has another trick up her sleeve. So, in studying the history of some of her still lifes, I was able to experiment with the way she layers, her techniques, and trying to get this effect or that. It is a good way to understand what an artist's technical process is - and the different waterc...

I took the reference photo for this watercolor last year in Japan, and added the figure which needed to justify the title - ha ha. I finally understand what draws me to take the pictures I do. I never knew why I crop the way I do, why I take pictures of certain compositions. It is SHAPES. I see SHAPES when I take pictures. Yet when I paint, I get finicky and go into details. Again, a lesson from life that I ought to apply to watercolor. I already have the ability. This watercolor has good shapes, but a dull color palette, I feel. It needs more vibrancy, more GLOW. Another version shall be attempted. I'm done for the day. "Solitary" - 22 March 2019

Watercolor is about water. I've only just realized that. I've been using the pigment more acrylically {lyric --> lyrical, so acrylic --> acrylically - why not! Grammarly, be quiet} and discovered the joy of watermarks and muddling today - wiping, blooming - more presence of WATER. I am so delighted. I feel like I've gone several steps forward in just this realization. THAT is what draws me to watercolors I see - the fading away into water, the accidents. Thank you, Jean Haines, and Kate Osborne. Here is a painting from Thursday's paint site at Overfelt Park on 21 March. And a new version done (rather impatiently) with wateriness.

There were some major takeaways from Iain Stewart's workshop a few weeks ago. - do lots of thumbnails - for composition, color, values. I learned about thumbnails in architecture school but left that behind when I started watercolor. An excellent reminder. They're quick, they're very satisfying, and you can see right away if something works or not. For several years, in architecture school, I had trouble accepting that a model of a building I was designing could actually give you any information at that scale. What a flawed way to think! Of course it can. If a model works, the building will work. The model may not be able to address everything, but the bigger issues can be definitely resolved. - warm up - do small studies...paint something. Don't attack THE PIECE. - the first wash should be very very watery. Start with a puddle of water. I used to start with a medium valued puddle and put that down. Too dark. - Plan the next few moves. Anticipate; don't react. ...

The Pause. So helpful in not being reactionary. Look at it, walk away. The power of the pause gives you the power of choice. More than one choice. The pause between bites to enjoy your food. The pause before a reaction to what you hear, see, feel. The pause after a step in watercolor - to think, evaluate, learn. Not just drying time, but more time to look at it with fresh eyes. The time after that pause is yours. It's not going anywhere. And you arrive there with more power, more control, more choice. “It has been said that it’s the space between the bars that holds the tiger.  And it’s the silence between the notes that makes the music.  It is out of the silence, or “the gap,” or that space between our thoughts,  that everything is created including our own bliss.” -  Wayne Dyer I am back to painting this old subject of the folk dancer [after a pause]. Several studies and color schemes later.... Are they getting better with each successive try? I'v...

This small painting of the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers' Market entitled "Saturday Lunch" was just accepted into the Small Works juried exhibit. I am so excited! I am looking forward to framing it - looking for a {white} frame to not exceed 10" in any direction, and shipping it off with a return mailer [which I hope they won't need because someone will buy it :-)  ]