I suppose the quest to paint an unselfconscious bloom starts with paying attention to detail, sketching all manner of blossom and leaf. I’m letting myself do some of that this spring, along with occasional bouts of practice painting blooms from a combo of memory and imagination with strokes and puddles of saturated paint and water. . .hopefully to lose the selfconsciousness!
These three are some of the “detail” studies showing up in another accordian folded book 5.5″X7.5″, enough space to get some details but not too much or any background. Good for concentrated study of plants, which in the aggregate are overwhelmingly complex.
And then there’s the small studies, here a bunch of alstroemerias, a tulip, and invention, all small studies to practice wet blending, like that of watercolor artists on Instagram like Janette Phillips, whose reels and video demos I’ve been watching.
I tell myself, no finished painting needs come of all this experimenting, practicing, and I mean it. Discovery happens in small pieces of wow! that you can’t get on purpose, but can stumble onto with enough paint and water and time.
Water and concentrated watercolor applied with a pipette and water spritzer and an occasional swish of a water loaded brush. This form of painting is like trying to direct the flow of a fast running river while trying to keep your shoes dry. Fun? Oh yeah!
Trying for the effect of light coming through the trees. Needs more practice to keep from washing out too much of the pigment. The color is imaginative here. My goal is a fantascape to challenge the imagination, more than to paint a realistic landscape. I’d like to go back into this one now that it’s dry and add more vibrancy, but know I’ll lose something. Just move on and try again or fiddle with it some more? What would you do?
My favorite part of this one is the lower piece where the reds and greens and golds didn’t mix and muddy each other. I’ll keep playing with it, and each one will be different.
These are more exercises from the Dolores PhelpsWild Watercolour workshop. Next week we move on to skies, which I think are the hardest!
Watercolor paint is pretty expensive, so normally I don’t go around squeezing dollops and smearing them onto dry paper with palette knives. But I keep seeing reels on Instagram where this is done quite effectively. So I thought I’d give it a try, along with some brushloads of water, spritzing and scraping. Not much control here, but I love the effect.
Tree bending into the storm here, with one of my new favorite colors, Daniel Smith’s Transparent Pyrrol Orange. Not a color you’d find on a tree here in Olympia right now, but then I’ve been painting snow too, and we don’t have that either.
This was an exercise in the Wild Watercolor workshop with Dolores Phelps that I’ve been taking – painting different snowy mountain shadow colors on oriental papers and then crinkling them and stamping rock pattern on the paper. Very fun and quite effective. I’m struggling with the wet watercolor skies with cloud drama and hope to learn lots more of that.
Practice with water spritzing and drawing trees with pipettes to give the layered perspective.
And here a fantascape, where a “failed” sky area is inspiration to go all in on the threatening weather scene, with a volcano erupting to add to the drama. I do after all live in volcano country!
I’m going all-in on watercolor and ink for a couple months now. And that means lots and lots of water and paper and watercolor and ink. I even set up a table in my studio dedicated to the process after signing up for an online course with UK artist Dolores Phelps. I’ve always loved painting with water and charging in the paint/ink. This artist offered an intensive way to explore techniques with an emphasis on Wild! See the plastic on the table? The thirsty towels? The containers of clean water? Pipettes and floppy brushes?
In the first two weeks we’ve been learning how to mix indigo with inks and watercolors and explore the effects of intense pigment “traveling” in wet shapes. Control is sacrifised for the natural drama of gravity and the loosening of resistance on the paper.
These techniques fit right in with my years-long love of creating fantascapes, and they pose all kinds of new challenges and opportunities to witness the vagaries of pigment-loaded water, granulating pigments, varying degrees of flow and more. This style of brooding landscape fits well for the winter season here in the PNW when skies and water can change from moment to moment!
Just to prove my point! I took this succession of shots from an office building on the west bay side of Olympia last week between 9:30am and noon. Moody, broody, gorgeous, tantalizing skies and water, reflections and trees, but how to simplify and paint the spirit of it?! Learn to control the watercolor or go wild with it? Both approaches take a great deal of practice, a lifetime of it I’m finding.
In another lesson we practiced some wild watercolor flowers, stems and leaves!
All these lines were drawn with pipettes filled with either pure water or nearly black ink or watercolor of similar intensity. The wet flower shapes were painted loosely with a water-loaded brush, then touched briefly with full pigment. In the first one I was finding my way with the pipette technique, meaning squeezing too hard or not enough! The one on the right started with a quick spray of droplets of water on the dry paper and a pigment loaded pipette dragged through it. It’s easy to picture painting the poppies and lavender of spring and summer using these techniques!
That’s some of the first and second week. I’ll try to share more as the course progresses.
Warm greetings to all of you today! I’ll share a collection of sketches/images/paintings as a bit of tidying up the old year while moving ahead enthusiastically into the new.
kakimori pen and ink, watercolor and white gel pen in beige toned Nova sketchbook
The last of the pumpkins were getting recycled by the pig at Hunter Family Farm where we picked our Christmas tree this year and last. That sunny day in mid December Mount Ranier was sitting there unveiled, seemingly just on the other side of the field, in all its dazzling white glory (14,411 feet of it!). And the cut trees in the barn were exhaling the freshest breath of the yuletide. Very heady stuff!
These foggy, soggy, mossy, days of mid winter are certainly not the best for plein air painting, but gosh they’re perfect for fantascaping! I’ve done a bit more playing with Daniel Smith granulating watercolors, wet on wet. Just watercolor on wet paper where mists grow organically and textures are built quickly as pigment particles are set free and scraping yields grasses. A walk in the woods or even the backyard becomes a catalyst for fantasy forests and lakes.
These were done quickly on 5.5″X7.5″ watercolor paper. Can’t wait to do more! Can you see the crows on the bare trees?
It gladdens my heart to think that my chilly walks on overcast days are preludes to merriment with paints in hues so perfectly suited to these winter scenes. Gray only for those overcast days? No way. Lots of Daniel Smith Green Apatite, Jadeite, Transparent Brown Oxide and Hematite -hued days ahead!
They are the colors of mosses outside my studio door and tree-festooning mushrooms in a local forest.
A visit to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma was a holiday treat for the family after Christmas. Here is a school of fish, all made of glass and created with the DNA sequence of Steelhead Trout. The colored bars on the walls and reflected on the sides of the fish spell out the DNA in a spectacular exhibit . Amazing to believe but, environmental DNA which is the “dust” of species, filtered from a water sample, then analyzed, can produce a detailed picture of the species in that habitat. The Salmon School art project is intended to highlight the crisis in global wild salmon populations, and here in particular the diminished wild salmon catches on the Skagit and Puyallup rivers.
Bronka had the tiniest profile on the Chehalis trail and she was by far the largest presence.At 96 years when I met her, she was maybe 4 feet 9 inches tall and nearly blind, yet somehow she could see people with eagle like clarity. I had just moved to Olympia summer of 2021 and knew only a handful of people in town. I spotted her on the trail speaking with someone and was intrigued. I waited until she was alone and asked her a question about the ecology of Chambers Lake.
We started walking together on occasion and I learned her story. She was a Polish Jew who was the only one in her large family who survived, just barely, the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. She was rescued and spent an extensive time in hospital rehabilitation before being welcomed to Sweden and marrying Ake Sundstrom, her beloved partner for life, who taught her “how to do everything”. They eventually moved to Washington state and after many years “retired” to a house near their beloved Mount Rainier. Both of them became legends on the 14,411 foot Mount Rainier, but at 77 years old Bronka set a record for being the oldest woman to summit the mountain in only 19 hours. Everything about her defied the imagination.
If you want help imagining it, watch this short video of her ascent of the mountain!
A walk with Bronka always meant numerous stops to speak with friends and offer advise to all. She took it as a solum duty to bestow advise, and if you visited her apartment, you departed with gifts! When I told her I hadn’t been walking lately because of pain in my legs, she gave me Epsom salts with instructions, lozenges to assuage my thirst while walking and always dispensed the walking cure. Her five miles a day was an embarrassment to me, 25 years her junior, who stretched my occasional walk to maybe three miles max. I learned that her friends and protectors numbered in the hundreds, including a judge, doctors, city officials, mountain guides and as far as I could tell, all the regulars at Mount Rainier Park.
When I saw the obituary of Bronka in the news I thought back a few weeks to the last time I saw her on the trail when walking with Bob. I thought she would not be able to see me until I had reached her, but she read my own silhouette and recognized me as I approached, offered a hug, and picked right up where we’d left off. Thanked me for the 100th time for the portrait and Bob for finding the right frame for it. No memory dimming here. She joined us and we passed the bench dedicated to her on the trail outlook spot where I had first met her. The bench was installed in recognition for her record setting ascent of Mount Rainier. Recognition also of all she had lost and then had won back after.
She knew of course that her life was slowly trickling to an end, and had talked to me about it. Talked about how even in the midst of the love and acclaim coming to her from so many directions, she desired that end. She had lived the paradox of living such a rich and loving life while also experiencing unimaginable loss and human cruelty. She had mounted an epic triumph over death far beyond the life expectancy of all but a few., and even beyond her own personal desire at the end.
So my hunch is that her spirit, freed of the physical limitation of this turgid earthly plane of existence, will be very busy still. Like my mother Ellen, she is even now still urging, cajoling, encouraging, and reassuring me. Now perhaps reassuring me more than before, as she has finally crossed the finish line, safe at last from the cruelty of humanity, united with the family she lost, if missed terribly by those who have loved her.
But a postscript here. . .I met up with Lisa on the trail shortly after Bronka passed. She was also a “trail friend” of mine and the only other friend of Bronka’s I knew personally. Lisa related that she’d been walking the trail on her own birthday November 29, 2023, which she later learned was the day Bronka died. A flock of swans suddenly filled the air and the lake with their loud musicality and dance. Lisa, an avid bird watcher had never witnessed such a thing. We now know why – that it was indeed the swan song of a diminutive giant.
watercolor, gouache, ink in Field Watercolor Journal
Treated myself to three new Daniel Smith watercolors from the Paul Wang palette. Paul loves granulating pigments, meaning those where the particles of pigment get knocked out of solution when they move across a wet surface, like a curdling of milk. I used all three in this little painting of a landscape theme. Mainly I was just trying to see what might happen. The three are Green Apatite Genuine, Jadeite Genuine and Transparent Brown Oxide. I think the Genuine after the name means it’s just the one ingredient (a ground up rock for instance) and the Gum Arabic Solution, like single origin coffee!
Here’s some more playing around with the new pigments while looking out a window at a friend’s house. The Jadeite is perfect for our PNW conifers, and the Green Apatite for the others trees and bushes. I love the Brown Oxide, which is warmer than the Sepia I usually use.
When you buy new paints, do you let yourself play around with them first? Imaginary landscapes are so quick and great practice. And sometimes your practice pieces look than the ones you labor over anyway.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I invited nature to my table. On holidays Mr. Squirrel’s table is set outside the dining room so we can enjoy his enjoyment. The Amanita on the table inside caused a bit of concern. “Isn’t than poisonous!!” Well yeah, but you have to put it through your digestive system first. And it sure worked in my arrangement of backyard findings!
On the shortest day of the year a short drive through snow flurries landed us in the faux tropical setting of The Bark and Garden Nursery where we found respite in the indoor plant section. In this divine setting the Buddha oversaw the art making with his beatific inner vision and gentle waterfall acoustics. It was warming and restorative!
ink and watercolor in w/c hand.book journal
Normally I don’t think one finds a flamingo statue in a meditative garden with a Buddha, but when I finished the sketch I noticed that bird peeking out behind Buddha, no doubt being drawn in by his compassion. So in the last two minutes there I added him to finish the story of abundant grace!
Since we’d run into lunchtime and were hungry, Jan and I headed over to the nearby Mall’s food court to also practice catching people on the move. I figure it takes at least 30 minutes to warm up for this kind of quick capture sketching, where you’re really taking a rapid mental picture and trying to hold onto it long enough to get your nervous hand to get something human-like down on paper. Often the figure is long gone and you’re half finished and needing to make up the legs or use someone elses. The faces at the tables were more cooperative, but the manikin in the window was the best! We were just getting warmed up when it was time to head home!
At home the day before I was practicing a technique I’ve seen on the youtube channel @VanidasMangathilArt. This amazing painter/teacher demos how to paint imaginary figures from watercolor paint splatters!
direct watercolor on w/c paper
He makes it look pretty easy, so I thought I’d give it a try. My first line of splash figures was intriguing enough to try again. I did the second line of 12? figures in 5 min with my palette “mud”. You’ve got to paint fast before the paint dries. Now do 10 more lines, I told myself! and was promptly called to dinner. So the challenge is still floating.
Want to do landscapes in the same way? Vanidas Mangathil also demos imaginary landscapes which look so effortless and realistic that your mind is blown. Give it a try and let me know! He’s also on Instagram of course.
Catching up on posting some more recent portraits here before I head off for house hunting in Washington on Saturday! I’m taking my toned paper sketchbooks with me to continue Portrait Art for Sanity Sake
gouache on black toned paper, Stillman and Birn NOVA Trio sketchbook
I never pursued oil painting due to the smell, which I loved but couldn’t tolerate. But gouache is similar to oil in many ways, the viscosity and opacity, so it’s a great way for a watermedia artist to play around with challenging new techniques. While I’m painting with it, it tends to feel wrong, due to so many years now working with transparent pigments, but by the end I’m usually happy I tried.
gouache on black toned paper
Pretty intense looking guy, huh. Pure soul in those eyes. I’m getting these wonderful poses courtesy of members of the Sktchy app who are artists sharing pictures of themselves or others for the purpose of creative portraiture. The most recent 30faces30days challenge/course is finished but there are always new courses coming up, if you want to check it out.
watercolor on grey toned paper finished with w/c pencil
My efforts at this pose were a reminder that, when you’re painting children, you need a lighter hand. This girl is at least five years younger than my portrait! Something to practice. . .
w/c and white gouache on grey toned paper
It would be hard to go back to painting on white paper! So I ordered another NOVA trio book to take on my trip.
When I come back in about a month, the garden will look different, so I’m taking new pictures every day of the garden as it explodes into blooms, each one of which is occupied by a butterfly at least once each day.
a busy spring palette!
Andrew here, holding a Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly, drying its wings after newly emerging from its chrysalid. Now they are fluttering in dizzy mating pairs and laying eggs in the vine. I hope to see legions of those munching polka dotted caterpillars before we’re gone!
We built my art studio when we moved to Sebastopol, California from the SF Bay Area 20 years ago. It’s a simple building where my creative spirit has taken flight and supported me for these many years through the many vicissitudes of modern life. It has been the home for my workshops and the setting for many ongoing friendships with students. And for years I opened it to the public for open studio events twice a year.
Since the pandemic and sheltering-in-place began three months ago, it has become a kind of hermitage. I have had to cancel workshops and rethink the ways I use my studio, as well as find new ways to encourage myself and others to actively pursue art. In that spirit I invite you into my studio to imagine with art with me.
Since the video here has no voice over, let me just orient you. As you enter you will walk counter clockwise around the room, looking out some windows as well. Those of you who have been here for classes will notice the more open floor. I took down one of the tables to make room to move for streaming Jazzercise classes! The comfortable chair is an addition as now I have the space to read. The paintings on the wall are mostly mixed media acrylics. There are tables to do Muse painting/collage, watercolor illustration, a wall section to clip Muse pieces up as they are “born”, a section for portrait stories of homeless women, and of course birds, birds, birds and then the garden where they live outside.
Enjoy watching the video, while I enjoy imagining meeting you here in person!
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