Preparing for Grapefest, (Grapevine, Texas) September 13-16

Wednesday night, I will be setting up my booth for the four-day Grapefest art festival at Grapevine, Texas.  All the pieces are nearly in place, but it looks like I could still be putting in some late nights today and tomorrow.  There is still some matting and shrink-wrapping to complete, and I have two watercolors still to finish (I would like to have them ready by festival time).

This is a painting of the ghost town of St. Elmo, Colorado, near Tin Cup Pass.  I photographed it on 35mm slides about ten years ago, and finally got around to painting it this summer on a full-size sheet of watercolor paper.  I’m getting ready to shrink-wrap it and matte it for sale in the booth this weekend.

Thanks for reading.

Watercolor Mountainscape

Mountain Watercolor

I wish I could write about where this mountain is located.  I have photographed dozens of them from Colorado, New Mexico and west Texas, and honestly I have no idea where I found this one.  The only reason I painted it (and it is quite large, filling a full sheet of watercolor paper) was to test out a new palette of colors, departing from what I’ve used the past couple of years.  I’m preparing a large matte and shinkwrap for this one as well.  I guess it doesn’t hurt to have a few large pieces at hand in the art booth next week.

Well that’s it for tonight’s blogging.  Thanks for your patience.  I’ve put up quite a few.  Now I’m returning to paint until I get sleepy.  Hopefully I’ll return to the blog tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Watercolor of Historic Church in Leadville, Colorado

Leadville, Colorado Church

Here is another 8 x 10″ watercolor I completed last summer, and now have slipped into an 11 x 14″ matte and shinkwrap bag.  This is one of my better, smaller pieces.  I think I’ll price it at $150 for next week’s festival and see if it can find a home.  I photographed this historic church in Leadville, Colorado during one of my many trips to that splendid mountain city.  Recently, while Texas temperatures have hovered menacingly above the triple digits, I have looked with remorse on the Weather Channel to see temperatures in Leadville in the upper 40′s.  It must be a splendid sight, waking every morning in a town like Leadville, and looking out at a Rocky Mountain range bathed in color and atmosphere that challenges the plein air painter like nothing else.

Thanks for reading.  I still have more paintings to blog.

Painting in the Man Cave as the Rain Pours and Temperatures Drop

St Elmo, Colorado

I had expected to make more headway on this watercolor today.  The details are slowing me down.  Having only slept three hours last night, I succumbed to the Texas heat around noon, and decided to take a refresher nap after a late lunch.  One of my painting buddies came and worked with me in the man cave during the latter hours of the morning.  It is always rewarding, working next to another artistic spirit.

I awoke to thunderstorms around 5:00 and the temperatures had dropped to 70.  That I can handle.  So, I’m back in the man cave, the garage door is open and it’s pouring down rain outside.  The skies have darkened deliciously and I so love the sounds of the heavy raindrops glancing off the hoods of the Dodge Ram pickup and Jeep, just fifteen feet behind me.

My next step is to contrast the red and gold buildings that anchor the left side of this composition.  Then I’ll lay down the boardwalk in front of the stores, finish detailing the windows and doors on the structure to the right, and I will be nearly finished.  Perhaps I’ll post this finish work after all, before the night is through.

It is so nice to be out of school now.  Thanks for reading.

 

Returning to St. Elmo Watercolor in the Man Cave

Working on St. Elmo, Colorado in the Man Cave

After re-working my Edward Hopper painting, I next turned to another painting that needed finishing, which I choose not to post, maybe some other day.  Now, I turn my attention to the third painting of the day–St. Elmo, a ghost town in Colorado, where I took a number of 35mm slides years ago.  I have to use a Kodak carousel projector to put this image up to where I can study it.  It’s nice that I can darken the garage sufficiently this morning (now 8:31 a.m.) to project the slide onto the wall in front of my drafting table.

My goal is to complete this painting today, so I can move on to something new.  I’m ready for a new challenge, and wish to get some quality painting done before summer school begins Monday, and then my Eureka Springs watercolor class, a week from Monday.

Thanks for reading.

Lost in Colorado Wonder

Painting St. Elmo, Colorado, late night in the studio

I always laughed at the stories of Pablo Picasso working in his studio at 3 a.m.  Long ago, I lost the ability to pull all-nighters.  I miss them.  But this could be a late one.  I took a nap this evening (had a pretty miserable afternoon) and now am waking more as the hours roll by, and am getting lost in the rustic architecture of this Colorado mountain town.  I recall it as vividly as if it were yesterday.  Four of us were about to embark on a foolhardy trip over Tin Cup pass in a Jeep Grand Cherokee 4-wheel drive.  We made the trip, but I still think the decision was foolish.  I don’t bother to sport the bumper sticker “I Survived Tin Cup Pass”‘; I don’t take a lot of pride in doing that trip with a vehicle not quite cut out for it (Geez, 4-ply tires even!  What a fool).

I lingered around St. Elmo for quite a long time that afternoon, shooting my old 35mm camera, using Kodachrome slide film.  I’m glad I saved the slides, though technology in the schools has all but made them obsolete.  I don’t know how much longer this Kodak carousel projector is going to hold up.

I took a break from painting to read a bit (I’m re-reading Basquiat by Phoebe Hoban), and to look at this work-in-progress on an easel across the room from my man cave.  I like the habit of Andrew Wyeth, putting up his work so he could glance up at it while doing something else, or while entering a room, and thus get a snapshot impression of it to know what works, what doesn’t, and most of all, figure out when to quit the thing.  I’m making myself stop right now because I’ve crawled into the painting to the point that I’m focusing on all these minute details and forgetting to see the entire work, compositionally.  That’s how I lose a painting.  There is a haunting soliloquy in the motion picture Six Degrees of Separation, where Donald Sutherland muses over how it feels to “lose a painting.”  I have no words for this.  But I regret those countless times when, signing a painting, I sighed and admitted to myself that it “looked better a week ago.”  I pushed it too far.  Right now, I have questions about this Colorado painting, and so I’ve decided to set it aside while I muse over it, and meanwhile, continue reading Basquiat. 

Thanks always for reading.

Watercoloring the Colorado High Places

Colorado Mountain Town

I tried to make today count, studio-wise.  But it got intolerably hot in the man cave this afternoon.  Now with the Texas night temperatures dropping, I find myself wishing for some of those St. Elmo, Colorado mountain temperatures right about now.  Despite the bugs everywhere around me (they must really like these citronella Tiki torches), I am finding the opportunity to paint again.  Posted is what I managed to do during the morning hours when it was cool and pleasant.

I’m working overtime, trying to “fold” these buildings with better contrasts.  There is a deep shadow between them.  I’ve decided to render the one on the right in gold and the one on left (not in this picture yet) in brick red.  The siding is peeling badly, which is just what I like in watercolor rendering.  I’m trying to use my brushes more as pencils, taking advantage of the cold-press texture of this paper, in capturing the blistered wooden surfaces of the buildings.

I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll have this painting finished in time for the weekend show at Levitt Pavilion.  That was not my design, but I’m surprised at how fast this one is shaping up.  It is not as large as the ones I’ve done previously, this one measuring 16.5 x 22.5 inches.  Thanks to an afternoon nap, I just may be able to stay with this one late into the night.  We’ll see how it goes.

Thanks always for reading.

Sunday Morning Watercoloring in the Studio

St. Elmo, Colorado

Awoke around 7:30 this morning to a beautiful Sunday.  The man cave is nice and cool, and it has been a pleasure, chipping away at this watercolor of St. Elmo’s Colorado.  During the morning hours, I’ve enjoyed working on the paint-peeled facade of this building and the decrepit windows.  So far, I’m moving rather slowly through this as I keep “feeling it out.”  I seem to have more of a Willem DeKooning rhythm, as I spend more time stepping back and staring at this than I do actually painting it.  I keep making compositional decisions as I move along, and it results in very slow progress.  But . . . I don’t feel any kind of deadline looming, and my next art festival is still five days away.  Eventually I will have to break away from this and get back to organizing, packing, printing new greeting cards and post cards, and doing all those tasks that precede an art festival.

I had the pleasure of meeting Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price last night at the Weiler House Fine Art Gallery’s open house.  I was delighted to find her very personable and communicative, despite being hemmed in by so many admirers.  There was quite a crowd present.  I did have a photo taken with her, and will post it if it gets forwarded to me.  It was also a good night for meeting patrons and other artists.  The Arts Goggle festival in south Fort Worth was also fun.  It was a street festival with plenty of artists’ booths in place.  I had the pleasure of visiting with Steve Moya (who will also participate in next weekend’s festival along with me).

Next weekend I will be set up Friday-Sunday at the Levitt Performing Arts Center in downtown Arlington.  (http://www.levittpavilionarlington.org/).  The music will be fabulous, featuring Michael Martin Murphey (Friday), Ray Wiley Hubbard( Saturday), and Asleep at the Wheel (Sunday).  There will be approximately 20 vendor booths set up on the perimeter.  The event is free, so I would love to see you if you have the time to come out and have fun with all of us.

Thanks for reading.

First Watercolor Attempt in the Newly-Designed Man Cave

Colorado Peak

I’m not sure how to finish out this mountain piece.  I’m working on a full sheet of watercolor paper, 22 x 30″.  My model is an 8 x 10″ photo I took a few summers back while traveling.  I hope to get back to Colorado some day and learn to paint these peaks en plein air.  I’m enjoying the new palette I began exploring a few weeks ago.  But I’m not comfortable working from a reference photo that is as old as this.  I don’t even remember this particular site.  I need a better connection to my subject.   Nevertheless, it’s nice working in this revamped studio this evening.

Thanks for reading.

Colorado Mountains in Watercolor

Colorado Mountaintop

School was dismissed today for Cinco de Mayo.  Rising early, I made the two-hour drive south to join the Star Harbor Watercolor Society for a day of painting in their studio.  I took my Saint Ignatius Academy painting along and did some finish work on it.  I’m choosing not to post it, because what I did has not changed it profoundly enough to show the readers any kind of “progress report.”

I next turned my attention to an 8 x 10″ photo I took a few years ago while tooling around Colorado.  My gut reaction was to attempt a watercolor sketch of this on a 12 x 16″ block, but I quickly changed my mind and pulled a 22 x 30″ sheet of 300 lb. paper from my portfolio and thought “Why not”?

I have decided, after weeks of mulling my options, to change my palette radically from the restricted one I’ve used with very little modification the past two or three years.  I made a trip to the art store yesterday and bought a fistful of Winsor & Newton tubes, and decided to try them out on this mountainscape.

For the sky, I used (for the first time) Winsor Blue (Green Shade), Winsor Blue (Red Shade), Phthalo Turquoise and Payne’s Gray along with my usual Cobalt and Ultramarine Blue.  I also tossed in a little Winsor Red and Transparent Yellow for good measure.

For the mountain, I used (for the first time) Transparent Yellow, Permanent Rose, Quinachridone Red and Winsor Violet along with my usual Winsor Green (Blue Shade), Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Winsor Red and Winsor Lemon.

I worked rapidly, and allowed long spaces of time for the wet-on-wet to set up and dry.  During the drying stages, I worked on the Saint Ignatius Academy painting.

I’m dying to return to Colorado so I can watercolor mountain ranges en plein air.  I feel so limited working from photos, and wish I could look at these ranges while I work.  But, north Texas will offer no such vista.

Sunday I will return to Athens, Texas and give the waterlilies another try.  I’m looking forward to that road trip and adventure as well.  I’m pretty exhausted tonight, but hopefully will return to this mountain painting tomorrow and see if I can finish it out, along with the Saint Ignatius piece.

Thanks for reading.