Sitting on Ke'e beach, trail closed due to impending hurricane, sudden rain storm, the surfer town of Hanalei, a view of the Hanalei Valley, the Kilauea Lighthouse, and Hanapepe by night. And finally the flight home and a quick sketch of a beautiful sunset from the air.
The past page is what I put on the inside front cover of all my sketchbooks: the color palette I am currently using.
Here are some images from Saturday's painting workshop at the Brea Art Gallery. We did a sketch and a painting of the bungalows overlooking the Arroyo in Pasadena. We met upstairs in a large space that was the ultimate workshop room: it was well lit, the tables were big and spread out, and there was water close at hand. It made for a perfect Saturday afternoon of painting.
And afterward, everyone could view the Watercolor West show in the gallery downstairs.
I have been teaching a weekly watercolor class at the Creative Arts Group in Sierra Madre. Here are images of the some of the subjects and the general scene during the demonstrations. I work on 140# Fabriano cold press paper, and Holbein transparent watercolor.
Here are some of my set ups from the last few months: my inside studio, my outside studio, teaching at the Creative Arts Group in Sierra Madre, and teaching a watercolor workshop at Swain's Art Store in Glendale.
We went to a concert last Saturday night at Occidental College. It was excellent as usual. While listening I had a change to do these three sketches. I did all of the pen work on site, but added the color later in my studio.
Here are two recent paintings. The top one is another try at the Hillside Houses scene which I have painted frequently. The bottom one is of the Colorado Street Bridge by moonlight, and is a modification of a painting I posted last month in which I added some more darks and some accent reds throughout.
The unique thing about these two is that I did not use pen and ink, or white paint. They were done with light pencil lines and transparent watercolor only. I did these specifically for the Watercolor West Annual Show, which requires the use of the medium expressed transparently.
I try not to throw away a painting that I am not happy with for at least a few months. That gives my time to look at it and reflect upon it, to see if there is any way to save it. These few were in storage for a years. I brought them out this past weekend, and seeing them with fresh eyes, I was able to figure out what they needed.
Sometimes a bad painting needs a good cropping. The top one started out as a half sheet horizontal and is now a vertical 11" x 14". In addition to cropping, it needed some serious color reworking and some softening. The second one just needed a lighter touch with the color, which I did with titanium white paint throughout. The bridge moonlight scene just need a slight color adjustment.
I am still working on the bottom one. I am adding more pen work, more shadows, and some white highlights. This one also benefited from a good, stiff cropping from a half sheet to a quarter.
Here are two recent paintings of the Green Hotel, and the Pasadena City Hall. They both started out as full size sheet paintings and were done a few years ago. I wasn't happy with them so last weekend I cropped them down, added some pen work, and enhanced the colors.
