What a struggle on human figures.
I have been wrestling with the Prima Deck painting for weeks on and off and keep coming up with "cartoonish" human figures. Driving me batty. So am changing and will get more whimsical as i do the same scene with different images to replace the people until I can improve them. The real path here is to abstract the faces as much as possible and not get caught up in detail as i am not a portrait painter. stay tuned. on winter break now so at the easel. keep painting. ron k

Changing Composition

After struggling with so many shapes in the sketch composition for "Prima Deck", i decided to eliminate most of the peripheral human figures and focus on the three or four in the limelight. will post wedn hopefully. ron k

Northwest Watercolor Society Watermarks 2013 Exhibit

I had the pleasure of attending the artists' reception for the North West Watercolor Society's Watermarks 2013 Exhibition at Tsuga Gallery in Bothell WA on Thursday evening. My painting, "Emergent Eagle", was jurored into the exhibition by juror Michael Reardon. The Exhibition was well attended including friends I have not seen in decades--what a treat; and the Sandy O'Conner, the wife of a university colleague at the University of Washington.

The reason for this blog is to share some of Michael Reardon's comments and criteria for selecting the fifty works out of over 250 submissions. One criteria that was dominant is the understatement of color in many of the award winners--subtle color, strong design and strong simplicity--a more subdued palette. This puts the emphasis on composition and value as contrasted to strong color schemes. Color was certainly present and the juror in my opinion did a masterful job of selecting a nice diversity of work and approaches. What a treat as this is my third work selected for exhibition by the NWWS.

i am working on a piece at the moment in which i am trying to eliminate many shapes from my sketch and seek to combine and cluster major shapes with colored grays, leaving the brighter and intense colors for the center of interest. we will see by next week.
Keep painting. ron k

Zooming In

Hi all, am back to painting again so thought i would share some issues that i am dealing with as i warm up. one issue or approach is the choice of  how much detail to put in a scene. i tend to reduce the detail and simplify the composition in order not to get caught up in lots of shape "bits". it is fine if they truly add to the story or background support but if they are simply information props then i filter them out. so i choose to zoom in on a strong center of interest and eliminate detail.

the two sketches from my sketchbook illustrate a zoom approach with each having a different center of interest: the lower image is the combination of two women sitting under the umbrellas; and the upper image is another woman  figure with a white hat showing through the shadows cast by other umbrellas. this way i am challenging myself to simplify both the detail and the brightness and attention at the center and not all over the painting as i tend to do at times.

i also have been painting with as smaller brush lately, a no. 10 Scepter II WN round backed up by a no. 16 round. i tend to paint quickly and sometimes impatiently so am trying to slow down a bit and not loose the looseness re: Charles Reid. i also am trying to put more accuracy in my pencil sketches as i do the same with the sketch technique as you can see in value/composition examples attached. including more people in my compositions as their shapes have always been a challenge.  have fun and keep painting. ron k

Too much brightness

First of all the good news is that Emergent Eagle has been juried into the Northwest Watercolor Society's Waterworks 2013 exhibition with artists' reception on October 24, 2013 at Tsuga Gallery on Main Street in Bothell WA. Hooray.

After review some of my recent work (took time off to work on the new book), i realized that i had way too much emphasis throughout the paintings. After taking a workshop with Ron Stocke,
Everett WA at Cary Jurrians Whidbey Island Arts Center in Langley WA it dawned on me that i am overstating many of my paintings. so i am now working on a new set "Images of Langley" where i am reducing the emphasis and focusing drama, intensity and color at the center of interest where it belongs. easy to say harder to accomplish like much in painting. so am including my first study of the "Prima Deck" series as an example of my current efforts. will post the final hopefully next week. Have fun painting. ron k