"If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint."

~ EDWARD HOPPER

Videos

If you're interested in learning the basics of watercolor visit my YouTube channel playlist Watercolor for Beginners. I cover working with paint consistencies, washes of all kinds and understanding/creating a color wheel. Thanks for stoping by!

End of Season Sunflowers
​Watercolor demonstration of multiple watercolor techniques; wet on wet, dry on wet, blending/feathering and drawing with pencil into this painting of sunflowers. This is intended as a preliminary composition for a larger painting. Sunflowers are an endless inspiration for me. Light is a real challenge that will take more studies to get what I'm looking for, while also trying to keep it fresh and spontaneous. Apologies for the length! I sped it up quite a bit. Feel free to do so more. A scan of the full image is at the ending. Thanks for stopping by for a look see!

Blackberry Bramble II

Watercolor Lilacs

Rage
​Demonstration of the wet on wet process of painting "Rage." There are no words to describe how tragic and heartbreaking it is to see and smell the destruction of the planet due to our lack of ability to control our own behaviors in the consumption of fossil fuels. Fires rage. It's certainly what I feel about this catastrophe. 

Painting Dark and Handsome

Purple Dahlias with a Sunflower
Here's my demo of a small watercolor painting of purple dahlias with a sunflower. I highly recommend painters film themselves painting. One learns a lot about when to stop. In this case I see that in my next painting I'll be leaving more unsaid, allowing for more white space. Live and learn!
For the first layer the watercolor pigments used are the
​Da Vinci mixing set (split primary) with the addition of DV Paynes gray, DV Phthalo green, DS Sodalite Genuine and DS Yellow Ochre. Second layer I used pretty much all Daniel Smith pigments off my larger palette. I bought the DV mixing set to see if I should recommend them to my beginning students. They're reasonably priced at around $39 for 6 15ml tubes. I've enjoyed painting with them quite a lot. They rewet and flow nicely, and colors are vibrant. I'd say they're easier to work with also. I usually use DS, WN and M Graham pigments. WC brushes used are Silver Black Velvet, Princeton Neptune #12 and Loew Cornell #12.

Painting Scruffy Guy
I recently subscribed to a portrait painting online community called sktchyapp, which is an app for your phone and iPad. People from around the world post photos of people and occasionally animals that artists can use as reference. Great practice! And great artists! So much creativity in the interpretations of portrait photos people post. If you enjoy drawing people and want practice it's a great community. They offer courses at affordable prices too. But you don't have to buy them to participate. It does cost around 5 bucks a month, which I think is a deal considering the incredible number of photos one can use for reference.  Really it's overwhelming.
I recorded the last portrait I created in watercolor of an artist who also posts to sktchyapp, Mr. de Vries. I call him scruffy guy. Maybe I went overboard!! He seems an interesting character.  Enjoy!
Painted on Arches 300lb cold press paper. Pigments: QOR Quin gold, Daniel Smith Quin purple, M. Graham Ultramarine blue, Daniel Smith Indanthrone and a bit of Da Vinci Burnt sienna dark.

Watercolor Chickens

Painting Dahlias Wet on Wet

Painting Ruston Kitty

Blackberry Bramble
​Blackberries are everywhere here on Whidbey Island. Spent a little time picking berries and shooting photos thinking it be fun to paint them in a spontaneous, loose way. Here's my playful, wet on wet, interpretation of my time with them. Blackberry Bramble Watercolor.

Sunflower with Dahlias
Sunflowers are coming to a close this season and I needed to get in a painting of this lovely from a friends garden. I had lost and found edges bouncing around in my head and this is an effort to explore those. Hope you enjoy this demo!

Painting Graffiti Man
Here's another sktchyapp portrait. I'm really enjoying the app. So many interesting faces and poses from around the world. I highly recommend it to those who like drawing and painting people. 

Monochrome Painting of Daffodils
Playing around with Winsor Newton paynes gray. It's very reactive to water and blossoms a lot. This is done on Winsor Newton HP WC paper. I enjoy the kinds of marks it makes.

The creation of "Spanish Olives Watercolor."
​More often than not I start a watercolor using a wet on wet process. In this case I wet areas rather than the entire paper allowing for stark whites for reflections on the glass and cap. Then I look at my subject and assess general background color(s). I apply paint allowing it to bleed. After the first layer is dry I start delineating the forms and shapes. I sped up this video but in real time I was very deliberate, spending more time looking at my subject than the painting.

Peony Watercolor

Kitchen Sink Bouquet

​Watercolor Meditation 1
​Colors used: All Daniel Smith, Indanthrone blue, Pyrrole red, Nickel azo yellow. Brush: Rosemary & Co., Sable Blend, SER 402.