Pacific coast cypress tree in acrylic

This was painted on an 11X14 inch stretched canvass from a color reference photo in about 3 hours. I painted this scene with an art instructor from the Art Institute, Sacramento who is taking private painting lessons from me and who wants to paint in a looser manner. I will be posting our side-by-side painting progress at a later date when I get the time. My palette colors were titanium white, magenta, lemon yellow, cobalt blur, and phthalo blur. I love working with a limited color palette.

Got Blubber?

An eight inch by ten inch watercolor painting of a P.B. on ice in my Wednesday (two weeks ago) watercolor class at my studio. I added the sketchy graphite lines AFTER I finished painting the bear. Gives the watercolor more energy. What do you think, dear reader?

Pissed of Pachyderm!!

This is a 10 inch by 18 inch watercolor I did last week in my Wednesday watercolor class that I teach at my studio here in Sacramento. Wet-on-dry for the elephant and wet-on-wet for the soft dusty background. Get that Safari Wagon in gear, fast!!!!!!

Happy Fall...it's going to be almost 100 degrees today in Sacramento!

Typical weather here in our Mediterranean climate zone. Most likely by the end of October it will be getting a lot cooler. The Donner Party wagon train got stuck in the Sierra Mountains at Donner Lake end of Oct. Enough meteorological and historical info and on to watercolor art by yours truly. These are two studies I did for a recent watercolor workshop here in toasty Sacramento. Both were painted wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry on 140lb. Arches cold press paper.

More Hogmen

Looks like Harley's are selling well in China. These are two more watercolors I did without the benefit of the full color spectrum. These are American-made riders.

Hog Man

I painted this mono-color watercolor a few years back, and am always drawn to it because of my love of Asian brush/ink painting. Mono-color painting is a GREAT way to exercise your control over value. Value control is part of the foundation for most all art mediums. I have an hour and fifteen minute DVD where I paint and talk about portraiture watercolor techniques and value control. Internationally renowned Nicholas Simmons wrote an endorsement of this DVD that is printed on the back cover. It sells for $50.00 plus postage. Email me at sushi3@mac.com for particulars. By the way, I had the pleasure of meeting Nicholas Simmons about a year ago when he came to California to conduct a workshop for the California Watercolor Association. The handsome guy with the beard is me :-)

Surfaces reflect colors

I might have exaggerated this slightly, but the white fur on a polar bear will reflect colors surrounding the bear. Most all surfaces will reflect surrounding colors. This is a small 5 inch by 8 inch watercolor I did for a demonstration in one of my many watercolor workshops. Painted on 140lb. Arches cold press. I hardly ever tape down my paper. It just lies on whatever surface as I am painting.