Thank yous (current and belated)...

About a week ago, Deb Ward announced that I'd won her Holiday Giveaway, but she kept us all in suspense about my gift. Late on the afternoon of the 31st, Señor Terremoto thought to check our post office box and there was my mystery package from Deb!! I'm pleased to say that I received a set of notecards featuring six of Deb's beautiful paintings, including one of my all-time faves, the peony that graces Deb's blog banner (go check it out!!). Thank you, Deb!!

The second thank you is also to Deb, for bestowing a Kreativ Blogger award on me last October. I got so woefully behind in my blog reading while I was back in Wisconsin for my dad's memorial service that I gave up on trying to catch up and just started in where I was in late October. But that meant I completely missed Deb's award. So a very belated thank you, Deb, for your vote of support!!

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Starting off the new year as a materials geek...

I finally had a chance to test the Stephen Quiller watercolors I'd received a few months ago. The primary claim of this line is that the pigments are balanced to give perfect neutrals when complements are combined (and each tube is labelled to identify its complement). Taking into account that it's difficult to mix exactly perfect proportions, my impression is that they perform as advertised. However, I found them a bit gummy to brush out -- perhaps due to the use of honey as one of the ingredients.

As a comparison, I mixed neutrals using the same Winsor Newton pigments, with one exception -- I don't have cadmium yellow on my palette so I substituted Winsor yellow, knowing that it was not likely to give a clean neutral. Although my camera distorts the color just a bit, I think you can see that the Winsor Newton neutrals are comparable to those mixed with Quiller paints. The W-N mix of ultramarine violet and Winsor yellow is muddy, as I suspected it would be. That's because Winsor yellow is a staining pigment and is not compatible with the granular ultramarine violet whereas the cadmium yellow, another non-staining pigment, mixes well with that violet.

In sum, I'm happy with the W-N colors I have on my palette -- I know which pigments can be successfully mixed and I have a wide range of pigments for that reason -- and I prefer their consistency.



I've also been trying out some new masking fluid -- Masquepen -- using the Supernib Plus for the little blue dots you see on this early-stage painting. The beauty of the superfine nib is that you can make very consistent-size dots -- these are about 2mm in diameter. It really is important to clean the nib frequently however, because it's so fine that it can clog up in a very short time. I keep a bucket of soapy water on the table and rinse the nib every few minutes, blowing the soapy water through the tip and running a fine wire through it to make sure it's completely clear. The other areas on the painting have been masked with either Incredible White Mask or Winsor Newton Colorless Masking Fluid applied with a Cheap Joes Uggly Brush -- the masking shows up as slightly darker and a bit shiny where the light hits it. I dip the brush in liquid dish soap and then rinse it slightly and wipe it before dipping into the masking fluid. I also rinse the brush regularly and repeat the soap step before applying more masking.

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Update to This week at Brush-Paper-Water...

Red Squirrel, 1.75" x 2.25"

watercolor
Tracy Hall

My sincerest apologies to Tracy Hall, one of my featured artists on the showcase this past year, for inadvertently leaving her out of the slide review. Fortunately, she caught the omission and gently pointed it out to me. She's included now, so new viewers will see the whole show -- 29 wonderful artists!!

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This week at Brush-Paper-Water...

October Afternoon, 14" x 21"
watercolor
Robin Purcell

One year ago, I set myself the challenge to expand appreciation for watercolor. Encouraged by Robin Purcell, I began a watercolor showcase blog, Brush-Paper-Water, with Robin as my first featured artist. It has been a wonderful year, full of discoveries: new artists, new approaches to watercolor, and new friends. Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to a successful venture. Please pop over to Brush-Paper-Water to see a retrospective slide show featuring one painting by each of the 29 artists whose work appeared on the blog.

I'm looking forward to a new year of sharing watercolors by a whole new bunch of artists. And now I'm going out for a celebratory drink!! Cheers!!

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Joys of the season...

Back when we had far more time than money, Señor Terremoto and I created many of our Christmas ornaments from bits and pieces of inexpensive supplies. These clothespin dolls provided many hours of fun and have had a place of honor on our Christmas trees ever since. (We had a great time with the details, some of which don't show well on the slides -- the ballerinas have painted on toe shoes, the medieval and Spanish ladies have lace-edged pantaloons, the monk has a tonsure, and the wizard has a magic wand.) We don't have a traditional tree this year, so I photo'd them hanging in the sweet olive hedge along the driveway.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

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This week at Brush-Paper-Water...

Move in Closer, 2006, 24" x 18"
watercolor and gouache on acrylic-primed paper
David Coffin

David Coffin is another artist who came into my life via the internet -- I'm constantly amazed at how that has expanded our horizons. If you dig a bit into his past, you discover a man of rather diverse and unusual talents. He was an excellent traditional watercolorist back in the 1970s, then became fascinated with tailoring clothing and proceeded to develop instructional books on that subject and worked as an editor and writer at Threads Magazine for many years.

In his recent watercolors, David has taken exploration of materials to quite astonishing levels -- his work is incredibly rich in color, full of fantastic flowing shapes, and really quite mysterious.

Please visit Brush-Paper-Water to see more of his work. And when you link to his blog, be sure to take time to visit his daily painting blog, Eyes and Skies, for some wonderful studies utilizing the unique properties of watercolor.

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Our Lady of Guadalupe...

Having spent the first 30-some years of my life in Wisconsin, I still can't get used to the idea of roses blooming in December. However, here we are on December 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and her namesake rose still has blooms. This charming rose, which we've had for three or four years now, has bloomed repeatedly since last spring, but it is nothing short of miraculous to see the flowers at this time of year.

(Sorry the image is somewhat out of focus -- I was crouched over in the rain trying to get this picture.)

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Fish out of Water challenge...

Fish out of Water by Chris Beck
watercolor, 6" x 6"

Chuey by Pablo Villicana Lara
watercolor, 16" x 12"

Well, we certainly came at this challenge from different directions!! I took the literal approach and Pablo took the virtual -- and I think the much more difficult road. While I was thrilled just to find an excuse to put this vintage planter on the wonderful fish fabric from my stash, Pablo was putting *himself* in the role of "fish out of water" by painting an animal -- and on top of that, as a commission!! (He never does either of these things!!) He says, "I was totally nervous 'cause this is so out of my comfort zone. The great thing about challenges is that they challenge us to grow as an artist whether it be techniques, thought processes, or just taking on something that we wouldn't normally think of painting."

For me, painting the single-color fish planter was a technical challenge. I finally settled on a base of raw sienna and rose madder genuine because it lifted off the paper very easily for the highlights on the ceramic and could be mixed with purple for shadows. The fish fabric allowed me to play with masking fluid, one of my favorite things in my bag of watercolor tricks! On the advice of my friend Connie Williams, I used Winsor-Newton masking fluid instead of my usual brands and I loved the ease of applying it -- it's very fluid and makes it easy to mask very fine details. I painted the entire background teal, waited for it to dry and then masked all the fishie shapes. When I had finally finished painting the ceramic fish, I applied the dark fabric color to the background. I let everything dry thoroughly, then removed the masking fluid and toned the background to give it depth.

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Watermedia Showcase award...

Snail Mail by Chris Beck
watercolor, 6" x 6"

"Snail Mail" is currently showing on the Watercolor Artist Blog because it won an honorable mention in the Watermedia Showcase international competition. You can view the show here. The winners will also be published in the February 2010 issue of Watercolor Artist magazine.

This painting was the happy outcome of an invitational challenge from Jelaine Faunce back in the early part of the year. My watercolor buddy Pablo Villicana Lara and I joined oil painters M. Collier and Jelaine in this challenge to create still-life paintings using a plain white envelope as the common object.

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This week at Brush-Paper-Water...

Light Track #2, 22" x 30"
watercolor
Linda Hancock

One of the marvels of the web is the opportunity to discover new artists through chance encounters on somebody's blog or website. One of the drawbacks is that you don't always remember where you found the path!! I somehow discovered Linda Hancock's Best of Show painting at ArtKudos.com earlier this year. From there, I popped over to view her website and then promptly sent her an invitation to my showcase blog. It turns out that we both lived in Madison, Wisconsin for many of the same years and had common acquaintances but somehow never crossed paths ourselves. I hope to remedy that on my next visit to Madison.

In addition to her fabulous bike paintings, Linda explores light and shadow in many different contexts, all with expert handling of watercolor.

Please click over to Brush-Paper-Water to see more of Linda's work and link to her website to see other watercolors and her wonderful calligraphy.

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