10 days later...

Slick  mosaic over resin, 15 x 10 x 6

Last post was February 13, and 3 of those were technical cheats, so for the month my posting average is .333 so far.  Slick was done for the Crow Show at the Spirit Room here in Fargo, ND, and turned out to be more complicated to do than I anticipated, which led to yet another excuse for not painting.  Since regular painting is the point of this, I keep shooting myself in the foot.  But March is nigh.... will try again and see if I can beat February's total.

Odessa Files, Part 4

Water Tower, watercolor 14 x 10

This was John's new property (at the time) up the hill.  I think the view is looking north, northwest, something like that?  Where "town" and Bailey's was down the hill below the water tower ...?

Odessa Files, Part 3

This Beer's for Dick watercolor, 14 x 10

Another old painting, previously posted, of another woodcarving friend.  So now I'm only 2 days behind, and will post new stuff -- but going to try to stick to the Odessa photos.

Odessa Files, Part 2

John at the Diner  watercolor 14 x 10

Pretty sure I posted this one a few years ago.  I know it was painted back in 2009 or earlier, as I don't paint quite the same way these days.  But in the interests of keeping a theme going here, and because painting anything new on T-W-TH is not likely to happen due to my schedule, I'll be posting a few other paintings done from "The Odessa Files" -- good times, good memories of carving times.

The Sculptor

The Sculptor  watercolor  10 x 13

Pulled some photos out randomly, and came up with the Odessa woodcarving bunch.  This is our fearless leader, carver of stone and wood and nasty smelling plasticine.   I believe this was the model for the eventual bronze statue of bricklayers, commissioned by the city of Carver.  Let's see if wife Paula notices this is him when it's posted to FB....

Sketching at the Plains

Standing Male Nude, watercolor  9 x 6

The local museum started a life drawing session with live models, always a good idea to brush up one's rusty skills.  There's a lot wrong with this, but it felt good to try to meet the challenge of time, motion, and a minimum of materials.  Focus and energy could use some endurance training as well.

The Critic

Drawing at the MFA  watercolor  14 x 10.5

Getting used to making art while John Q Anybody looks over your shoulder can be daunting, but it's one of those skills to acquire along with stuff like proportion, shading, focus, etc.  After all, it's communication, isn't it?  You're supposed to want people to want to look at it.  Fortunately, that gets easier over time.  The real skill is to get to the point where you just don't care if anybody else likes it, so long as you do.

Gondolier

Gondolier  watercolor 21.5.x 25.5

Easy guess on this locale:  too-cool Tomaso with trademark hat, hint of a stripe shirt, sitting on wrought iron bridge railing in front of a salmon-pink wall.  Done from a vacation photo from years ago that was my screen saver for quite a while.  The image has always grabbed me, but not convinced that painting it was necessary except to get it out of my system.

Ready

Ready  watercolor 10 x 12

AJ@15 (Callow Fellow)

AJ@15, oil (collection of Sarah Jane Flom)


Don't remember if I ever posted this before, it's an older painting, but it remains one of my favorite paintings ever. Yes, it looks unfinished and weirdly exaggerated, but it was intentionally done.  Washy strokes and a spring green background seemed appropriate.  Things grow all out of proportion and at different rates for boys at that age.  Attitude is large.   My oldest son could look down and give me "the look"  -- any parent is familiar with this -- occurring just before rolling the eyes and saying "mo-THER." 

Couch Peter

Red Reader, Revisited (study) watercolor 11 x14

Initially wanted to paint this because of the similarity to Red Reader, as again it is Peter in very similar gesture -- but 12 years or so later.  I just couldn't decide about color, dark shirt/ light shirt and so on, and then put it aside because the whole thing seemed like it was going to be kinda boring unless I could get some lively surface action going, and maybe that would be contraindicated by the calmness of the scene.   I see I forgot to finish off his toes and the beer in his hand.  Oh well, maybe later.

Worldwide Watercolor Competition

Progressions, watercolor, 20 x 25

Up Next, watercolor, 12 x 9

I've been trying to figure out how to peruse the list of the 600 artists that made it through phase 1 in the World of Watercolour's First Worldwide Watercolor Competition (that's a lot of Ws).  I have seen online that several have been notified that they made it past stage 1.  I just assumed that if I hadn't heard, it was not good news……

THEN, as I was doing my taxes and going through my records, I see that in mid-December I made a payment to the french magazine company that sponsored the competition.  Since my subscription isn't due to renew until May, I was confused.  Maybe I ordered a few more copies of the September issue (featuring yours truly)?  So I checked my email, and lo and behold, there was my email notification of having made it thru stage 1, as well as my receipt for payment for stage 2 consideration.  So, I did get in and I just gapped it!

Still don't know which of the two paintings above were selected.  I should run a pool, since it 's Super Bowl Sunday.  Let me know your pick, winners will get pack of notecards featuring painting.

By the way, the Art of Watercolour (http://www.artofwatercolour.com/) is a great way to get in on what's going on in watercolor from a global perspective; published 4 times per year.

Triads

Renaissance Girl, watercolor, 15 x 22

Cadmium red, raw sienna, and cobalt blue.  Triangular composition. Frankenstein, soccer and dress-up.