New Artwork

My bearded irises have flowered beautifully this spring, inspiring me to paint them. The delicate petals are ruffled and nearly transparent, with one group growing upward and the other down. Their feathery ‘beards’ and tightly folded buds provide additional interesting shapes and values. As usual, I took far too many reference photos, being especially drawn to those with backlighting. I wanted to give a different twist to painting an iris, and I was inspired by the paintings of an artist … Read More

Colorful cows, delicate flowers, cute pets, interesting faces, tranquil rural scenes – my online galleries are filled with pretty pictures. “Distress” is a departure for me, intentionally, and I’ve attempted a change in my style on this watercolor as well. What story does this painting tell you? How do you think the man feels and why? I designed and composed the image to be thought-provoking, moving and ambiguous. My goal was to prompt an emotional response. When I finished this … Read More

Painting flowers is well within my comfort zone, and I wanted to do a blossom in an unusual way, since I had it pegged as a show entry. My huge red garden poppies provide endless interest and I’ve taken oodles of photos. The delicate petals are beautiful and frilly. They catch the bright sunlight in a dramatic fashion, reaching out and up like dancing ballerinas. I had done another big poppy painting a couple of years ago, painting with acrylics … Read More

I was ready to try a large watercolor portrait on white Aquabord™ and hunted through my reference photos for an inspiring subject. I had taken some photos of my 3 year old great-niece Emma a month earlier when we took her to a terrific children’s museum. She is cute, bubbly, and a happy little girl; she was excited and animated with the fun activities at the museum. I got some good photos of her but none of them jumped out … Read More

My recent focus on painting portraits has proven successful in eliminating most of my apprehensions, so I’m off and running. One thing I’ve learned is how much fun I have painting white-bearded males! Capturing white hairs is a challenge when painting in traditional techniques of watercolor on paper, where the white of unpainted paper is preserved vs. using any white paint – but a good challenge can help develop artistic skills. Recently I decided it was time to do a … Read More

The intense eyes of a money-cat which I photographed at our local animal shelter inspired this new scratchboard, just for fun. Our two outdoor cats have a wooden ‘cat house’ on our porch with a lid which opens like a toy box. Rick made an opening in a mouse-hole shape at one end so the cats fit into the box but our dogs do not… and hopefully no raccoons or skunks can enter as well! So for this painting, I … Read More

I’ve read that when you are learning to do portraiture you shouldn’t try painting people you know. Well, I’ve obviously thrown that tip out the window! As soon as I saw my sister post this photo of her husband on social media, I felt it could make a great reference in my quest to do watercolor portraits. I was especially drawn to the casual pose, the side lighting and the beard. The sunglasses would be another ‘first’ for me to … Read More

Here’s my theory: the more people paintings I tackle, the more comfortable I will become with them. So I’ve started on a quest, creating small watercolor paintings of people who I have photographed in casual settings. “When He Was Six” is the first in this series, with the title harkening back to a popular painting of a little girl I painted in acrylics on canvas several years ago, titled “When She Was 3.” I’ve done other people paintings over the … Read More

The word “commission” has a few different meanings in regards to fine art*. A commissioned painting is one where an artist is hired by someone to paint a specific subject of that person’s choosing. I’ve done many commissions over the years, and they present some interesting twists, as opposed to creating a painting for myself, based on my own ideas and photos. As often happens with a commission, painting “Jordan Fishing with Grandpa Tim” has stretched me as an artist … Read More

  As a painter of animals, I know it is difficult to depict black fur. A big solid area of black just doesn’t cut it – you have to capture the highlights to make it look realistic and give it dimension. I was ready for the challenge of painting a black cow. This is my first cow art on Scratchbord®. My two previous cow paintings, Eat Chicken and Cow’s In The Corn, were both very colorful, created in watercolor on … Read More