Sketchbook Page-2

sketchbook page, 2013
ballpoint pen
page 8.25" x 5.5" (20.955cm x 13.97cm)
NFS

More fun sketching.
I don't really do floral.
Unless I can find a way to be anti-floral.
I have plans to do a painting from these studies even if for fun.224

Sketch Doodle Postcard Backside

Ballpoint pen on postcard, 2013
5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)
NFS

Since I am working on several projects I don't have a lot to post so here is another sketch doodle.

This was done on the backside of a postcard tucked in my door by solicitors so I figured instead of feeding the recycle bin as usual I would make some use of it.

As you can see this kind of sketch doodling is very different from my usual work. That's the point.

It is a way to artistically get away from that. No pressure to 'make' anything. Just put pen to paper and see what emerges. I start with random scribbles and allow things to develop from there.223

Local Landmarks - White Point Battery Bunker

"Whitepoint Battery Bunker"
watercolor on paper, 2012
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

A battery here in San Pedro California built for WWII and part of Fort MacArthur Museum, but never used in defense.

Originally Battery 127, its name was officially changed to honor the memory of Colonel Paul Delmont Bunker, Battery Paul D Bunker, BCN-127, hence the Bunker in the name. It's not a military bunker, it's a gun battery.

The road leading into the picture from the bottom makes a nice S line passing up through the contrails, ghostly echoes of its guns which never fired in defense and are long gone.
Adding the contrails also gives the sky some dimension. I prefer to make my skies a participant in the painting as a whole with some kind of texture, instead of smoothly rendered with no thought.

This is part of a new series of local military landmarks, many of which are within a couple miles of home.
Another local San Pedro battery drawing here.222

Email Update

My contact email with AT&T is currently down and has been for several days.
Although I think I can send emails I can not receive emails.
I hope to have this resolved by the end of Monday May 13th.

Sorry for the inconvenience.
David J. Teter

Update:
I can not receive emails or send emails.

David J. Teter

Update:
It seems my email is working again.

Update 5/22/13:
Now I can't send emails, only receive. :(

Curtain of Rain

"BNSF (Cajon Puddle)"
watercolor on paper, 2013
9" x 12.5" (22.86cm x 31.75cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Here's a recent work, a trio of BNSF locomotives, called a consist, passing through a curtain of rain, a sudden desert downpour, the kind that gives rise to flash floods.

The foreground puddle helped define the ground plane and gave the painting a cool starkness, like cut glass, hard sharp edges to play against the softer edges of middle and background. It also adds that element of danger, much like a lightening strike out of the blue, the idea of sudden downpours and flash floods. Otherwise the painting would (only) be a nice pleasant rain shower. So the rain puddle becomes the vehicle for that idea of danger, you can't miss it.
It is more on the man vs nature theme.

This is one of three styles or techniques I use in watercolor. It is traditional methods on watercolor paper but simplified, meant to have a more psychological impact. See this concrete plant, this river, and this lonely home for others.
My other traditional style is more hard edged and detailed or I as prefer to call it, clarified (Clarity). Another artist referred to it as intricate which I also prefer. Some treat 'detailed' as a bad word.

This is always a nice relief from the more intricate work which usually takes more planning, a tighter drawing and more careful application from the start. See this truck, this sulfur pile, and these two.

Here I focus on the big shapes, the main idea and how they communicate emotive qualities. This is more intuitive.
I like working these different ways, tight vs loose, going back and forth between the two. Both feed and compliment each other.
Doing the tighter work keeps these looser ones from getting too far out of control and doing these looser freer works reminds me to maintain expressive painterly qualities and keep it fresh.
I can't imagine spending my entire artistic career tied to one thing or style.221