Watercolor Rules

I wish the title of this post meant that watercolor RULES! But I'm afraid that this is just another rant on the rules and restrictions that some organizations feel are necessary to maintain the status quo.

I read that there were 613 commandments in the Old Testament, and about one third of them were "thou shalt nots." So I counted up the commandments in the TWSA prospectus that I was about to throw out and there are 29 commandments, 14 of them are "thou shalt nots." They actually do have a ways to go. :-)Just give them time.

So You Think You Can Dance

I just got back from teaching a wonderful workshop for the West Virginia Watercolor Society. The classes enthusiasm over making a "flip book" astounded me. They are sure to continue their quest for the perfect samples of color and design strategies. These DO take your paintings to a new level.

Then we discussed content. This was new to some of the class, and exciting to all. How do you put more of yourself into a painting? How do you get some ideas peculating in what used to be "just a pretty picture?"

While this concept may have been new to painting for some artists, they understand content when it applies to other forms of art.

The last night my wonderful hosts and I watched "So You Think you can Dance" (Is that the title? I'm not a TV watcher.) Anyway, the criticism of the dancers was light and nice, but it centered around two things. Evan evoked the style of Fred Astair--sweet and old-fashioned--like most of our paintings. He and his partner found it hard to really express themselves with this style. In painting we might say that the technique dominated the painting. And the artists personality and emotions couldn't show through.

While struggling with content in our paintings these quandaries that the dancers faced was obvious to average people. The judges even complimented one corriographer for daring to create a "conceptual" piece for the competition so near it's end. Another corrieographer created a dance that he thought would be "Popular" with the voting audience. I don't know the results of the voting. did Evan's popular work win? Please let me know.

I had a great time teaching in Waynesville, North Carolina, a couple of weeks ago and staying with David and Nancy looking at Waynesville Mountain from every window. This mountain, combined with watching two girls playing freely on a lawn, brought together my recent experiences.

This painting is untitled as of now. (I have 1135 painting titles in my computer--so there is no excuse for this.)It is acrylic 30 x 40.

This Way

Having returned to my "Irrational Perspective Houses" of my past, I rummaged around in my memory for a watercolor that I had done of my childhood self with my bike. What fun we had careening down hills and riding far out into the country-side. I think that I'm on my way to a series called "Free-range Children."

I have to give credit to a book by that name for putting into words (and into my mind) the lifestyle we enjoyed. According to the author, today's crime statistics are about what they were in the 1950's. The difference seems to be the 24 hour news cycle of today versus the half-hour with Walter Cronkite back then. Only now we worry about free-range chickens.

That Way

Here is my latest. "That Way," 36 x 36 Acrylic on canvas.
I've had a ball with my big paintings. They move along fast and create mini surprises as I layer color over color. Enlarge this image and see what I mean.

Photographing them, though, has been a challenge. I have a Cannon Power Shot G9 and tons of experience shooting slides. But how to light big paintings,and not get way too yellow a cast to these works?

If I set the camera on Program, go to the Auto White Balance option, and then follow the directions to color correct using my old gray card from my slide days, I ended up with correct color!! And the camera is supposed to remember this setting. It also automatically bracketed my shots, but this probably isn't necessary.

I was also pleased to be accepted into the 2009 San Diego Watercolor Society's national show with my houses on stilts, and am currently in the Transparent Watercolor Society of America's national.

Going for it Big Time

Finally I've been able to go big! 30 x 40 canvases are now easy to manage with some basics from Jane Filer's approach toward underpainting. My new ventilation system makes an hour or two in front of a canvas safe for me. So I am off and running--and running up my paint bill.

Here is a stab at painting my old waterfall sketches in acrylic while taking advantage of the fun things that I do with my house paintings.

Workshopping

'Tis the season for workshops, whether I'm teaching one, or for the first time in a decade, taking one. I just got back from a long, fabulous weekend with Jane Filer on North Carolina's coast. You will see changes in my art for sure from that experience. Bigger, texture and acrylics.

Here I am giving demo at the Kanuga Watermedia Workshops a few weeks ago (I'll be teaching there next March). The photo was taken my an Internet friend of mine, Donna Zagotta, whom I met for the first time there. Audacious is my middle name. May it be yours too.

See you all at my Blue Ridge Watermedia Workshop, In Waynesville, North Carolina, June 15-18. Call Nancy Belvins at 828 246-0237 for details.