Love on the Grand Canal

5 x 7" watercolor

Daughter Sarah had a keen eye for capturing love all around us in Venice and elsewhere in Italy. PDA Venetian style presented here and hereafter, just some memory squiggles. Posting is going to be sporadic this week, trying to get Peter off to Boston.

She Learns Her Part

9 x 9" watercolor

Light ink this time, maybe shoulda been more in this case. Mostly this is an exercise in using up an odd piece of paper I had. There's a narrative here, I'm just not sure what.

Adolescente Brutto

10 x 8" watercolor & ink

Again with the ink running; there was more to do with bits and pieces of the storefronts on the streets, but I got far enough into this to decide that I would use this study for a larger painting. I like the way the colors triangulate, and the forms are distorted by the camera lens. Distortion fits teenagers, who must walk a few paces away from parental units while kicking a soccer ball down the streets of Florence.

Ann Ziety

8 x 6.5" Watercolor & Ink

Lighter hand with the ink today, and that seems a good thing. I like little character sketches like this, a bit of narrative going on. This one's very Spillane, no? Or maybe Sir Alfred's Grace.

One Man Band, Verona

10 x 6" watercolor & ink

Ink that runs; scribbly tho it is, at least that prevents getting too attached. Doing these quick (and dirty) sketches is a good way to keep from putting too much time into something larger before I really think about it. We saw this guy and a lot of other street theater the day we stopped for lunch in Verona. Can't recall the music, except that there was no oompah-pah-pah.

Dog Days of August

6 x 6 " watercolor

Don't you just wish you were at the lake?

I've been back at this painting a day business for about a week now, trying to get even and stay current now that these things have become fond memories: the flood, the wedding, the workshops, and the surgeries. I need a title for this guy, if anybody's got one.

Sisters

5 x 9" watercolor

Another in the series of studies from old family photos. They are poignant and narrative, albeit unknown to me except in a universal sense. How many of us were posed just so for our annual Easter Picture? I get such a kick out of this kind of photograph. I'm sure I'll do more, here and there, but probably only as warm up studies.

Hopefully I am back at it, after spending a wonderful week studying plein air landscape with Marc Hanson in Taylors Falls, MN. Anyways, I have a little over 4 weeks left and 100 paintings for $100 or less to scrounge up and present by the time of the Studio Crawl.

Jiffy by the Tracks

5.5 x 3.5" Watercolor

Had to take Peter to work to his boss' house in Dilworth, and this is the view accross from the parking lot of Office Max, Peter's old job site. Did this just to do it, quick and dirty. And I did.

Fargo-Moorhead is so very scenic. Sigh.

Dike East Sketch 2

3.5 x 5.5" watercolor

....and here's another one.

Dike East Sketch 1

3.5 x 5.5" watercolor

I love my little moleskine watercolor book; that and my W&N folding paint kit both fit into a zippered envelope the size of my hand. I can always be carrying my paints, and even sometimes actually pull them out, without it being such a big hairy deal. More likely to actually happen.

Study for American Post-War Gothic

10 x 6" watercolor

This is better, but still not there. In the words of the Anointed One - "It's a study. You might as well have an adventure.." In other words, who cares if it all doesn't work out? This is prime thinking time, or evidence of it.

Study for Going To Town

7 x 9" watercolor

This is my first attempt back at painting since I don't know when, and it is a dismal affair. Putzy, self-indulgent and random choices. There are so many changes I'd make were this to become a real painting it's hard to know where to start. Way too much screwing around in the outfits and the background. Can't even remember the point of wanting to do this, so maybe that tells me something. In order to try to remember how I used to paint a watercolor, I watched a bit of video of my personal hero, Charles Reid. Ah, now I recall -- not so much contrasty edges or values, let the "blur" out and about, don't overdo a focal point, etc. etc. I should watch it about 10 more times before I pick up a brush again.....