Dippy Duck #6...

Dippy Duck #6

watercolor & gouache, 8" x 8"

Chris Beck

Dippy Duck has been a favorite demo subject -- no surprise there as he is brightly colored and quite distinctive. The title reflects the construction of the set -- the top part is a pepper shaker and the bottom half is a salt dish from which you would dip the salt with a small spoon. Oddly enough, this is the one salt shaker I don't actually own. I discovered this little fellow near the close of an eBay auction and the price was stratospheric -- somewhere around $400 -- quite beyond my budget.

This is another of the pieces I finished during a demo last fall. Like the duck painting I posted last week, the background is spattered with gouache to add sparkle and texture.

Featured artist in the NWWS Newsletter...

Hip Hop Bebop

watercolor, 12" x 12"

Chris Beck

It's always a delight to hear that someone loves your work, so I was very pleased to get a note from Charlene Collins Freeman this past summer, inviting me to be a featured artist in the Northwest Watercolor Society Newsletter.  Charlene created an excellent online interview, covering everything from my early art experience to my creative process and my thoughts on success, and she has included many of my favorite paintings in her presentation. The feature has just been published in the latest Northwest Watercolor Society Newsletter (Jan/Feb 2014). My thanks to Charlene for the invitation and resulting feature article and also to the newsletter editor, Jeff Waters, for sharing my work.

If you're not familiar with it, NWWS is a fantastic organization with enormous energy and I'm very honored to be recognized in this way. Check out the NWWS website.

My guest column in The Artist's Magazine...

 

 Arabesque

watercolor, 9" x 10.5"

Chris Beck

Now that the January/February 2014 issue of The Artist's Magazine has reached subscribers and is in bookstores, I can share the paintings I created for my guest column on masking fluid. 

The article features expanded steps in the creation of both Arabesque and Pelican Dreams as well as several other illustrations to help you make the most of masking fluid, regardless of your choice of subject matter.  If you aren't a subscriber or don't have easy access to a shop that carries the magazine, you can order a paper or digital copy by clicking here or going to the link in the sidebar.

The addition of gouache (pronounced "gwash" -- opaque watercolor -- for more info, check out this page on the Daniel Smith website) to your watercolorist's bag of tricks opens up possibilities for surface embellishment and the use of lighter colors on top of a dark base of transparent watercolor. In Pelican Dreams, I spattered gouache on the background both to tone it down and add visual complexity. Gouache would be off-limits in certain national exhibitions that require transparency, but there is a long history of using gouache, sometimes referred to as bodycolor, to add highlights and depth to a painting.

 Pelican Dreams

watercolor and gouache, 8" x 6"

Chris Beck

Schnozz made his debut here about a month ago, and is just back for an encore visit. He's painted strictly with transparent watercolor.

Schnozz

watercolor, 6" x 6"

Chris Beck

In other news -- I'm sorry to report that I have closed my Zazzle shop.  I discovered quite by accident that they had disabled the design controls I put on my mugs and stamps and allowed buyers to apply the images to different products in the same category. That meant the images were being distorted to fit shapes they were never intended to be displayed on. After going around and around with customer service, I learned there was no option except to re-post every item and reset the controls. And since Zazzle has periodically made other changes that required me to repost some of my products, I have no guarantee that they wouldn't disable my controls again. I cannot constantly monitor something that was supposed to be a fun, no-hassle way to share my work.

My "secret project"...

Schnozz

watercolor, 6" x 6"

Chris Beck

I spent most of the month of August on a project that I couldn't discuss until it was finalized. Just got word that it's a go, so....

Sometime last spring, I was invited to be the guest columnist for one of the features in The Artist's Magazine. The Brushing Up column is devoted to technical matters of painting and my article covers one of my favorite art products -- masking fluid.  There are tips on purchasing and handling it, as well as ways of using this versatile product.  Schnozz is one of the paintings I did specifically for the article and there are stepped out examples of how I painted each one.

My article will appear in the January/February 2014 issue of The Artist's Magazine -- due out in early December.  I'll be sure to let you know when it's available.

A Pirate's Ransom...

Capt. Hook

watercolor and gold leaf, 4" x 4"

Chris Beck

After seeing some dynamite paintings of autumn leaves with stunning gold leaf backgrounds by my friend Carrie Waller, I decided to try gold leaf to cover a dull and muddy background (don't ask!) on this painting of one of my vintage salt shakers.  I'm very happy with the results and it reminds me of an icon painting now -- no blasphemy intended.

It's been ages since I used gold leaf, and then it was to cover a little wooden box as a gift for a friend.  I'd forgotten a few things in the intervening years. Such as: don't breathe any heavy sighs of exasperation when things aren't going well because you'll only increase your exasperation as bits of gold leaf in your work area scatter like real-world leaves in a windstorm!! And: be sure you don't inadvertently get any sizing (basically diluted glue) on your fingertips or they'll be gold-leafed along with your art and there'll be little holes in the gold leaf on your painting!!

It was a fun experiment and I may try to do more with this technique, but right now, I need to prep a demo I'm doing next Wednesday for one of the local art leagues.  Hmmm -- wonder if they'd like to see a gold leaf background?

Flying with the birdies...

I'm working on a special project right now and can't say any more about it, but thought I'd give you a little teaser of one of the paintings that I'm doing for it.  Once again, I'm playing with my collection of salt shakers and hope the results will be pleasing to all concerned.

Splash 14...

My copy of Splash 14 arrived a few days ago -- with my fun ducks featured on page 55.  North Light Books does a fantastic job -- the quality of the book is exceptional and I'm thrilled to be in the company of so many wonderful artists, many of whom are my friends. 

Each Splash book is a treasure trove of the best in contemporary watercolor and a wonderful source of inspiration. You can order from the North Light Books shop -- they have both hardback and e-versions available.