My Work at The Muck

"Storage Yard Sun"

"Railroad Crossing"

"Powder Magazine"

"Storage Yard Sun"
For Sale at DailyPaintWorks, click here

"Railroad Crossing"

"Powder Magazine"
For Sale at DailyPaintWorks, click here
all watercolor on paper, 2016
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Here's three of the six paintings I have hanging at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center.
All were painted for the NWS plein air show, an exhibition and sale. The bottom two I painted just prior to the show opening.

Most often I am already familiar with the site and at different times of day. I walk the location, choose a view and proceed to do small, quick but careful studies of complicated subjects, capturing both my perceptions and an honest depiction of any information I see as important. These studies, done in a near journalistic fashion, allow me to get familiar with the subject and later serve to inform my studio work. Through later editing I am able to present my thoughts and views on the subject.

"Storage Yard Sun"
Another of my Storage Yard Series, an all encompassing term for the many industrial sites that I paint that don’t fit any category like refineries or warehouses. This particular day the sun was bright and was bouncing reflected light into the shadows giving the scene an animated quality. I set out to capture that before the light could change and even played it up a bit to give it some life.

"Railroad Crossing"
I often paint railroad locomotives, bridges etc but I also find a certain fascination with the common everyday railroad tracks, crossings and signals. I liked this particular view for the tracks splitting in two directions and had this site in the back of my mind for some time. I knew I wanted to paint it either in the early morning or afternoon to take advantage of the shadows to provide darks for the composition, finally deciding on the afternoon.

"Powder Magazine"
Easily overlooked, what looks like an unassuming little stone and brick building is actually a Civil War era powder magazine built in 1862 for Camp Drum in Wilmington CA. It’s odd to see in the middle of a residential neighborhood down near the LA Harbor since we don’t associate the Civil War with the west coast.
I have driven past it for years and finally needed to get it down in paint. With this study, as well as some others, I plan to develop it into a larger studio painting.431,432,433

Marker Demo Drawings

Here are some marker sketches I did for the demo at Blick Art Materials in Fullerton.The purpose of this demo was to show how to layer bright colors over a value marker sketch.
I used the Blick Studio Markers set of twelve which are mostly bright colors over the warm grays set of twelve (9 values + 3 black markers in the set) for a 10 value scale as well as the Blick Studio Brush Markers set of 24 which has the same colors as the bright set plus some non-bright colors.
I had several papers to demo. These here were done on the Canson Pro-Marker Layout Paper.

Markers are similar to watercolor in their transparency so are easily layered. The benefit with starting with the value sketch first is you focus on the design then add color.
The sketches with color are all value underneath. I started with a page of the value sketches then added color for the demo leaving some to show the difference.
It is fairly easy to knock down the saturation of most colors by coming back in and adding more of the value marker on top. If you compare the yellow in the bottom page middle sketch to the untouched bright yellow of the top page bottom sketch you can see what I mean.

I like working with markers for preliminary sketches and thumbnails for their immediacy to get right into it with any mixing of paint colors and sometimes you need to strike while the iron is hot.
Another aspect I like is as you really wet the paper with the marker over and over it will take on the look of watercolor somewhat with that characteristic blotty puddle we associate with watercolor.
See bottom page middle sketch.

Markers are not just for tight advertising and design renderings. They can also be used in a more painterly organic manner.429,430

Marker Demo at Blick Art Materials Fullerton

I am excited to announce I will be down at the Blick Art Materials in Fullerton tomorrow, Thursday February 11th from 2:00-4:00 pm doing a marker demonstration with Blick Studio Markers on Canson Pro-Layout Marker Paper and Canson Artist Series Illustration Pad.
If you are in the area stop in, say hello and take advantage of the big sale too.

Thanks to Jan Godachy of NWS for her support and recommending me for the demo.
Additional thanks to Ed of HAMELIN Brands, Blick Art Materials Retail Events Co-ordinator Todd and Fullerton store manager Buffy for their help and support in arranging the demo and supplying the materials.

NWS Show at The Muckenthaler Cultural Center

The NWS Invitational Plein Air Painting Exhibition opens tonight in Fullerton California.
I have six watercolors hanging in the upcoming exhibition and sale.

With special thanks to Penny Hill of National Watercolor Society and Matthew Leslie of the Muckenthaler Cultural Center for curating and putting the show together.

I am among some great NWS artists for this show so I know it will be top notch talent and I am  anxious to see it myself.
Mine were painted on location, plein air, primarily in and around my home town and The Port of LA.

They are quick studies done on location, much like a journalistic approach, and allow me to get familiar with the subject and often inform my studio work.