Artworks and Descriptions

Studies after Edward Hopper's "Talbot's House", from a lesson for watercolor class.

1. Pencil - blocking in the tonal shapes in the pattern they form, without using outlines.
2. Wash - again, blocking in the tonal shapes in the pattern they form, without using outlines.

Owl Studies - 6 wash sketches photo stills from an Owl-Cam in Massachusetts. Studies from owlcam stills of a pair of barred owls and the brood they raised a few years ago. Painted on multi-purpose paper with ivory black watercolor. The series started as brush line paintings from the owl cam stills for owl coloring pages. I brought the coloring pages and stills in for class to work from and then couldn't stop painting and studying them in this loose fashion.

Have fun with my owl coloring pages.

"Building at McLoon's Wharf, Spruce Head, Maine" - 3 versions of my photo  - all done on multi-purpose paper. Its thin and buckley but fun for direct painting practice.

1)Color sketch blocking in broad color areas and patterns. Color is exaggerated and simplified. Directly painted without drawing.
2)A more exacting study using Prang watercolors ( kids' paints, limited palette of 8 colors). These paints can be lifted somewhat so 'mistakes' can be greatly revised.
3)Finally another study using professional grade pigments (Winsor Newton, Schminke, Utrecht). These pigments do not necessarily lift - it depends on the particular color/pigment.

Camden Farmer's Market - scenes from my photos - both painted on the multi-purpose paper. Both painted directly, without drawing. I was exploring shapes of color and negative spaces, observing how the interlocked, and the patterns they form.

1. Flower Stands
2. Saturday Morning

Studies after Winslow Homer paintings

1. "Rest" - this is painted on Georgia Pacific card stock using a kids? set of 6 Alvin opaque watercolors. I made a chart of them across the bottom. Compare my painting to the reproduction in the book. These 6 kids paints were able to get a close enough match and get a decent range of values and colors.
2. "Fresh Air" - painted on card stock also. I don't remember which paints I used.
3. "Homosassa River" - painted on ancient Arches 140# Cold Press 100% rag/cotton paper. I'd only recently started using this ancient watercolor block that's been kicking around for years. It was warped from having made a long ago  moving trip from Philadelphia to New York City in the back of a pickup truck in driving rain. It recently surfaced in my junk, and being desperate for some watercolor paper I tried it out. Amazingly, though discolored around the ages (the days before acid free treatment), the size was still good. Arches paper is sized internally and all the way through. Some other papers are externally sized which breaks down more easily (sometimes too easily and unpredictably so). This creates a frustrating situation for the painter. One is painting along and suddenly hits a spot where the size has broken down. The paper takes the paint differently. The paint will appear blotchy. In some spots it will soak right into the paper and other spots stay put. And one never knows where or when this will appear. I had assumed this would happen with any paper once it got old enough. This Arches proved that idea wrong. I'd gotten that Arches block in my freshman or sophomore year in college (1969-70), 36 years ago!

1. "At Tampa" - straight forward attempt to do a copy of Homer's painting. It  was here at the Farnsworth last summer during an exhibit ofsomeone's collection.
2. "Sunset Fires" - painted on card stock. This was done as a demonstration lesson on washes.

Idyllics?

1. "Lily Pond" - inspired by Monet's lily pond paintings but my own composition. It's small, about 7"x10".
2. "Egrets" - composed from imagination.
3. "Cranford Rose Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Garden" - painted from photos I took there several years ago when visiting my sister who had recently graduated from Brooklyn College.
4. "Apple Trees - will this bear the apple of my eye?" - a small painting, an invented scene.
5. "Life Goes on at Homer's Mink Pond" - inspired by Homer's "Mink Pond". I've rearranged the subjects in the picture and added an extra frog.
6. "Wolf Dog" - this winter we did a class session on sled dogs and huskies. One of my husky studies was a simple line painting. I laid that on a lightbox with a sheet of watercolor paper over it and painted this dog directly without needing to draw it out. The setting was developed afterward.