Transparent Watercolor Society exhibit...

my painting "Heirlooms"

Well, the TWSA show is wonderful and, as always, the reception and dinner was an opportunity to visit with many of the artists -- both old and new acquaintances. After many years of admiring her work, I was very pleased to meet juror Judy Morris, following her virtual "gallery walk-through" presentation. I had most enjoyable visits with Tom Francesconi and with Kathleen Conover, both of whom received their Master signatures this year (bestowed on artists who have been accepted into 10 exhibits), the chance to chat briefly once again with both John Salminen and Ratindra Das, and the pleasure of meeting Ted Nuttall. I always enjoy my conversations with Donna Jill Witty, limited as they are to my occasional attendance at these events, and I met some new artists as well -- Angela Chang and Kaaren Oreck. Although she was not at the reception, fellow blogger Katharine Cartwright also had a painting in the show, as you can see on the left side of my photo.

I'm visiting my family for a few days and then on to Madison, Wisconsin for a few more days. I'll post again whenever....

Road report...

Snow in June????

We arrived at Señor Terremoto's sister's home in a Chicago suburb in the midst of a "snowstorm." There are drifts along rooflines and along the curbs. The wind picks it up and it swirls in little eddies and any protected spot is drifted deep.

Any guesses?

Hint: There's a very large tree next door. This type of tree is often found along rivers and was a welcome sight to the early pioneers as they crossed the great prairies. The large triangular leaves are attached to the branches in such a way that they have a characteristic flutter and sound in the wind.

In doing a bit of research today, I discovered that the Dakota Indians ate the sweet inner bark of young sprouts of these trees in the spring. They also fed young branches to their horses, and a dye was made from the leaf buds. The Sacred Pole, used in ceremonies of the Omaha Indians, is made from this tree. (This information is from a website maintained by Northern State University of South Dakota.)

Answer: Eastern Cottonwood, Populus deltoides.

This week at Brush-Paper-Water...

Wehi-Lani, 25" x 39"
watercolor
Kathleen Alexander

Kathleen Alexander is another one of my acquaintances whose skill with watercolor is amazing. Her subjects, primarily Hawaiian flowers and other lush tropical plants, are beautiful in their own right, and in Kathleen's hands they become even more exquisite. The combination of her skill with the medium and her choice of subjects has earned her well-deserved awards in national shows and a following at local art fairs. She is a new member of Viewpoints Gallery in Los Altos, CA.

Please jump over to Brush-Paper-Water to see more of Kathleen's work.

Captain Hook...

Captain Hook, watercolor, 4" x 4"

I'm getting ready to go back to Wisconsin for another visit with my parents. This visit was planned some months ago, long before my last-minute trip about 5 weeks ago. Anyway, I've been running around trying to get everything finished up before I leave. I squeezed in time for the little salt shaker painting too.

I hope to post once in a while during my trip. Included in my itinerary is a stop at the Transparent Watercolor Society of America exhibit -- my painting "Heirlooms" is hanging in the show -- and I'm also planning to visit some dear old friends in Madison, where I lived for many years.

Ciao for now...

No painting today...

No, my friends, I'm engaging in serious domestic fun -- scrubbing the floors. Gack!! But you have to keep up appearances. At least that's what I've been telling myself for the several weeks I've been trying to talk myself into this awful task. I've also been reminding myself how great I'll feel when this is finished. (Well maybe not immediately, but after liberal use of anti-inflammatory drugs!!)

On the topic of general maintenance, I've had several emails from people telling me they're having problems viewing my blog and/or leaving comments. Some people see the blog momentarily and then it drops out. Others are fine until they click on the comments link, at which point the blog crashes. I've tried one solution that was supposed to fix this, but that must not be the whole problem. The other troubleshooting suggestions would appear to involve just about everything but performing animal sacrifices, so I haven't been eager to delve into them. However, I have removed a few of the sidebar gadgets to see if that makes any difference.

Would you please send me an email at
chrisbeck.1661 at gmail.com
if you're currently having problems viewing my blog?

Mozart or Beethoven??

Capt. Hook in progress, 4" x 4"

It's said that Mozart could sit down and compose even the most complex symphonic music without hesitation and produce a flawless score, free of corrections. Beethoven, on the other hand, was said to struggle with everything he wrote, suffering through multiple revisions of scores (with much wailing and gnashing of teeth) before he considered them finished.

I am definitely a Beethoven. I seldom put a wash down on my paper and walk away satisfied with the results. Revisions pile on top of revisions. Colors get pushed around, shifted in hue, and lifted back to reveal what I want my painting to say. There are probably times when I should just hang it up and start over, but I'm too stubborn to admit defeat.

So it is with the current small painting. Paint has been washed on, scrubbed off, painted over until I'm tired of looking at it. I've started modelling parts of the bird into the third dimension, but there are still lots of details needed to complete the painting. Masking fluid has been removed from around the eye and on the body, but not from the beak at this point. I thought I'd show you where I am with it tonight and then I'll do one more post when it's finished.

Now with beak and crest...

Capt. Hook in progress, 4" x 4"

As you can see, I'm not progressing with any great speed on this. I added some stronger color to the body and also did the first washes on the beak and crest. I generally mix up a couple of puddles of color when I'm working on an area with shading and often use two brushes, switching back and forth to model the form. But I also freely mix in additional pigment if I'm not getting the results I want, so it ends up being a little more spontaneous process most of the time. The shading on the beak looks quite harsh right now, but I'll add more form and refine the details in subsequent washes.

For those who are interested, I've used new gamboge, cobalt blue, cobalt green, quinacridone gold, quinacridone sienna, brown madder, winsor violet, and french ultramarine blue. The blue shadows under the beak are a bit more subdued than this photo suggests and will be further deepened before I'm finished.

We interrupt our regular programming...

...for a short rant about Firefox!!!

For weeks, I've been getting the little pop-ups that say Firefox 2-point-whatever is no longer supported, switch to Firefox 3. I fell for this routine sometime last year and the result was that Firefox 3 went into some wormhole in the universe and retrieved bookmarks that dated to early in the reign of William the Conqueror. I finally had to trash the upgraded version and go back to my trusty Firefox 2. I guess they had a change of heart and continued to support version 2 a while longer, but apparently those happy days are over.

My husband had installed Firefox 3 on his computer without incident some months ago, so this morning I finally clicked on the button to download and install Firefox 3. And there it was once again -- a completely different toolbar -- this time filled with bookmarks that haven't seen the light of day since King George II was in power. Back to Firefox 2 for the moment (thank goodness for backups!!) and plotting my next course of action.

We now take you back to your regularly scheduled show...

Picking up where we left off...

Capt. Hook in progress, 4" x 4"

Once the paper was stretched and completely dry, I taped the borders using white artist's tape. The idea is to give a clean border, but paint always manages to sneak underneath the tape in some places. Still, it gives me a reasonably tidy edge.

You can see that I've masked a few areas -- a large section along the beak and smaller dots that will become the centers of highlights. I used Winsor-Newton colorless masking fluid which I started using after reading a post by Connie Williams on masking techniques. I have to give a shout out to Connie -- although I've been using masking fluid for ages, I learned several valuable tricks from her tutorial. I absolutely love the Winsor-Newton product, although my old favorite -- Incredible White Mask -- is still the perfect choice for some of the abstract work I do. (A note about brushes for masking fluid. I like Cheap Joe's Uggly brushes, but you can use any inexpensive synthetic brush. I find the white synthetic brushes are best. For some reason, they withstand the masking fluid better than standard tan brushes. I always use dish detergent to prep the brush and I rinse it frequently in a bucket of soapy water.)

I've also put in the first pass on the body color. This is the point at which I invariably despair, but I know from experience that I can resolve the problems with further washes.

See you soon with the next installment.

Blogger blunders...

I've had reports of problems viewing my blog and leaving comments. The very helpful Nitecruzr suggests removing the "Followers" gadget, so I have done that. Rest assured that you will still be following my blog and anyone who wishes to begin following the blog can do so by clicking on the "Follow Blog" link in the navigation bar at the top of the blog. If I find out that the problem has been resolved, I'll add the gadget back in so everyone can see the followers list again.