Library Exhibit

Louise Riley Library is exhibiting 13 of my watercolour paintings in June and July. Pretty stoked and inspired to submit my work to more galleries when they call for submissions.

Painting workshop

My wife bought me a one day painting workshop taught by Eleanor Lowden Pidgeon at the Calgary School of Art. The title of the workshop is "Courageous Watercolor" referring to the bold colours in her painting style.

At first I wasn't too sure if Di picked the right course for me because Ms Lowden Pidgeon's paintings are quite different than how I see my style. But I think that is why I liked the workshop so much. I got to see two demos and try a completely new process of painting. I was exposed to new things, as opposed to if I'd taken a class on techniques I was already familiar with.

She is quite careful about planning her paintings. Choosing the colours and the order they will be applied. Making sure not to mute or muddy the colours, except of course when she means to.

The colours in this painting are a bit muddy, but we decided it was okay since these are meant to be shadowy areas.

The top photo is what I produced at the workshop. I was pretty happy with it at this point, but not 100%. So I took a photo and brushed some water over the trees and sky meant to appear distant. I didn't want those trees to be as boldly coloured as the foreground trees. The second photo is the result. I had unintentionally scrubbed whole trees from existence. The third photo is the final result. I painted distant trees again, but with paint much more diluted in water.

Viewing these three photos of the painting, it is also quite apparent the photoshop treatment is not consistent. the trees on the right were not repainted but the contrast changes quite a bit between photos.

Not Landscape Abstract

Initially, I intended this to be a landscape. I wanted to practice making converging horizontal lines at the top to represent landscape off in the distance. Plastic wrap was lay over the green and red areas and black run under the wrap mixing the green and red. The mixing didn't happen as much as wanted. The darker bottom where the black was poured would represent the foreground and the lighter less contrast top would be the distance. I even gave the top a mauve wash, the colour of distant hills. I was really trying to give it 3D perspective.

Then I asked my friend what he thought of it, and he looked at it vertically. It really looks more interesting vertically than horizontal. So it's not a landscape now, and all that 3D perspective business is for not.

Rorschach Card

I like this one. It's interesting. But I have no idea what it is? A Rorschack question I suppose.

Plastic Wrap Abstract

I wasn't painting anything in particular. Hardly a plan. Abstract expressionism. This is the result.

11x17" watercolour

It looks rather cold. My wife sees a person. I asked who, but she must have known I was teasing and didn't answer. It wasn't my intention to paint a figure.

The technique was to paint the entire sheet yellow, then lay wrinkled plastic wrap on top the yellow paint. The painting was stood upright and very wet runny grey and blue paint was made to run down the wrinkles under the wrap. This was allowed to set for 30 minutes or so, and then the wrap was taken off, washed under a faucet and layed on the painting again.  Then violet paint was run under the wrinkles. This set for another 30 minutes and then wrap removed to let the paper dry.

Update 21-Sep-12:
So I said I was happy with the painting. But not over the moon. And I'd taken a picture of it. So why not give it another treatment. So I wet the paper again and let some runny cad yellow run under the wrinkles. When that dried, some spots were wet and lifted. Many of the edges look softer from the additional washes.

I'm still not over the moon about it. But I like it. I don't think it's going to be improved with any more similar treatments. It would take a major renovation to blow my hair back

Abstract Landscape

11x17" watercolour

At first I wasn't sure, but the finished painting is growing on me. I've flipped it upside down, looked at it in the mirror, close, far way. It seems pretty done.

Work in progress

First did a sketch so I would remember perspective and keep the far away things narrow and the closer parts fat and juicy.

I started painting the far away bits of the tree, the backside of the trunk and the bushy leaf area. Then I painted the closer parts. I realized I should have painted the background first. So next time I'll do that. This is supposed to be a study for a larger project, so in that sense i've learned what to do differently on the big sheet.

Then I put the plastic wrap on the wet part and stood it up against a wall. I loaded my brush with water and applied the water above the painting so it would run down the wrinkles in the plastic wrap. Fingers are crossed, but will probably see something in need of a touch-up.

Outreach Peru

I'm pretty happy with this iteration. Not sure if it will be the last. Looks great in the frame bought for the gala auction.

Maybe it's time to move onto a different scene and offer something different for my friend?

Abstract time lapse move

Abstract Portrait

I like this painting now. I didn't when it was first finished. It turned out much different than intended. So perhaps disappointed at first and not liking it for what it is. But we're all good now.

I wanted to make a pretty realistic portrait and then put wet wrap over it and smush it around until it was partially unrecognizable. That is, eyes and nose and mouth etc might blend or be distorted. After the smushing everything was unrecognizable and only a vague outline of head and shoulders remained.

I feel like I'm learning a lot everyday about how to paint watercolors and my learning curve is very steep right now. If that is true, I must still be at the very start of my 10,000 hours of painting. That's kind of exciting.

Recent revelations include:

1. layering a colour over another before the first one is BONE DRY will lift the first one and reveal blank paper underneath.

2. A dry brush swished around over almost dry paint or a slight damp area can make some nice brush strokes.

3. Over mixing of colours makes a muddy dull color.

None of these revelations really relate to the painting above. The Peru pictures are move applicable.

Peru study

Even though I haven't been painting much lately, I'm still super stoked about contributing to my friend's Outreach Peru gala silent auction. My other friend is also letting me use her travel pictures as photo references, which is super nice and cool. Above is the first attempt.

I like a lot of things about this little study, but on the other hand it still looks a little weak. The terraces in the bottom left don't seem quite right. Maybe they need to be more opaque or I didn't get the perspective quite right? I paid a lot of attention trying to give the painting depth, by making the distant areas light and mauve-ish and the closer areas darker. But I think I need to do more of this as well as blurring the distant horizons.

Closeup Portrait

I'm pretty happy with how this painting turned out. I didn't do any planning or sketching but carved out the face as I went along. It's a bit of a surprise the proportions are more or less okay. It looked better wet than after it dried though. There is probably a fixer or something i can spray on it to look wet? The nose looks a little too straight on and should probably be pointing more to the left. But maybe she is an ex-hockey player and it's bent out of shape? That's the story i'll go with. Overall I still like it.

Moab

Okay I promise this is the last time I paint this scene. I'm tired of it too. I like this version the best. The video gets dark about half way thru because I finished with indoor lighting whereas the first half had a nice light from a window.

I came back to the painting because i decided that the closer hills were too dark in the painting. So I applied a masking fluid to the foreground rock and washed away a bit of the darkness in those hills. Then i rubbed off the masking fluid and bob's your uncle.

Two Minute Watercolors

Today i worked on two minute watercolor sketches. I was hoping for happy accidents, but am pretty unsatisfied. Maybe I was being too controlling? Maybe i'm expecting too much? I was trying to accomplish some dry horizon lines in the foreground to help suggest which hills are closer and give the painting depth.

I might have to revisit the David Dunlop video to be inspired again. But i'm also tired of painting my Moab photo. Going to look for another photo before continuing with 2 minute watercolours.

I made little time lapse movies of my paintings. I think they all went over the 2 minute mark because I wasn't happy with the result. Going against conventional wisdom i'm sharing these crappy paintings with the world. On the upside, i liked the scraping effect created with the end of a metal ruler.

Portrait Attempt

I've been looking at all the wonderful watercolor portraits on flickr and inspired to try one myself. Judging by my sketch it might not be very realistic. The model is much more attractive. Hopefully the finished painting will capture that. I'll take more pictures to show the work in progress.

Art Deco Painting

I don't think this is what most people would consider "art deco." It's much too sloppy with errant brush strokes and paint runs. But the colours make me think of art deco. I love how bold they are.

I don't know why i feel the need to classify or label different paintings? In my last post i wondered if my painting was "abstract expression?" I looked up that label and it said something about being anarchic, which isn't a feeling i had about those paintings. So i was probably wrong calling them abstract expression.

Joy to the World!

Joanie's Bodhi Tree

The previous Bodhi Tree was initially supposed to be for my friend Joanie. It turns out she wants a painting much bigger than the 19x23ish inches it is. So i'm trying recreate another version that is much bigger. Here are the first two layers. Hopefully it will even be better than the first attempt.