I tinkered with sketch based on some good comments and will now leave it alone and move to another sketch. i kicked up the darks in lower left corner for better balance and stronger value pattern.

i may come back at a later time and darken the upper left corner a bit.

Quarantine Sketches

One more try...hate and love computers as they are processing machines not creative divergent entities. remember that please. an old man's lamenting here. anyway, here is my latest sketch that is more than a sketch. a nice painting but not full of drama. not yet. learning. ron k

 so here we go, there is some merit here and i will continue to pursue the drama. love you all. ron k

Hi All, hope everyone is safe, stay  home and dont believe some of these idiot governors from the south. okay? stay home and be safe.

It has been a while since i had brush in hand due to a couple of building projects that took up a lot of time. that is all settled and i am trying to get back into the process. My approach at the moment is to do a lot of small sketches to begin reconnecting with my energy and approaches. It is funny that now that i am a Signature Member in the NWWS i look at my work with renewed criticism and have gotten a bit safe and precious in my approaches. so, the sketch process is helping me out of that trap.

attached i have a few examples that i am working on and will continue to add more in the coming weeks. this series features shell fish, lobsters, crabs and crawfish (in process). so enjoy, comments are welcome. one of my aspirations in these is to get away from dirty colors, get the bright vibrant colors in the first wash application.

okay, so i tried to be loose and wet with key bright colors and lots of soft edges. more to come. keep painting and stay in your studios and be safe and creative. ron

YIPPEE

Just received confirmation that "Lemons Basking" was accepted for exhibition in the Annual International Open Exhibition for the Northwest Watercolor Society's upcoming exhibit, April 29 through July 11, 2019 at the Shoreline City Hall lobby, Shoreline WA.  I am truly excited by this and will definitely be in attendance at the opening on April 29, assuming around 630 to 7 pm start.

Keep painting. Ron K

Seeking the Light

It is amazing that after years of painting and teaching that i am still pursuing the elusive "light". Understanding a principle is not the same as being able to execute it. In Lemons Basking i am closer and feel like a made progress. i have "the big apple" in process and am again working on the light pattern so let us hope...also, i am trying to balance the desire to have interesting and complex brush strokes with an uncomplicated technique. Confusing? yes. I want energy in the brush strokes but a few of my studies were way over-worked. so now going back to the shadow shapes as starting point and balancing simplicity with some complexity. hope to have something to show by weeks end.
Keep painting. Ron K

For those interested painters, here are a few key principles that i used in approaching "Lemons basking"; i hope it helps beginning painters:

1. i wanted to focus on the light and the light reflected on the fruit (onions and lemons) as that reflectivity is the heart and drama of the composition;
2. i used a simple yellow/purple color compliment (opposite on the color wheel);
3. i wanted a lot of brush stroke characteristic in every object of the painting, using a lot of color integration and mixing on the paper not in the palette.

Essentially that was the approach plus using some late glazing techniques to unite areas of the painting.
Hope this helps. Ron K

well i actually stopped procrastinating and engaged a painting. i initially thought this would be a large study. as it progressed (and i left it for a day), i came back to it on sunday last and made an effort to pull it out. the deadline for the nwws exhibition turned out to be 6pm that sunday and at 230 pm i decided i would give it a shot and submit after playing with painting for a couple of hours. i photographed it still wet and pulled what hair remains as i tried to download the file and find it. first camera was not cooperating and finally image was found in a file folder. i submitted it at 330 pm successfully.

i do think it is a bit overworked, thus my hesitancy in submitting it but as i studied it even more, the various glazing layers of burnt madder, purple and yellow began to give it some harmony and punch. you be the judge. lesson learned: dont give up, learn by the painting and complete the work whether or not it is "successful" as their is a learning merit in every effort.

here is "Lemons basking"

keep painting and have fun--and comments are always welcome, ron k

Here is the Cioppino image from the exhibit: tried to keep it loose and illusionary.

Hi to all interested painters, it has been awhile.

I have just submitted a new book to publisher (Taylor Francis NY/Routledge UK) entitled "Urban Design: the composition of complexity", actually an 80% revision of the same book from 2011. mostly new material and expansion of "Theoretical Considerations (or not)" chapter.

so, ...............................am picking up the paint brush again and starting to explore ideas, subjects and new approaches. I look back on my older work and a lot of it is safe, not vibrant so i hope to change that. i also have been reproducing works on metal and it is a very popular format.

i did have a painting, "Cioppino Cluster" accepted in the last Northwest Watercolor Society Exhibition last fall. Somebody appreciates my efforts.

for this next series of paintings, i am focusing on less realism and more illustion and strong composition and contrasts or value differences. i will keep you informed and publish some images and thoughts as soon as i can.

Happy painting. Ron K

okay i had a lot of  fun with these new images and was searching for a more complex wash stroke. i did a new series on landscapes from alaska, british columbia and washington and i like the way they turned out. complex, loose with good merging. hope you get something out of these. ron k

Slowing Down with Smaller Brush
Hello all you dedicated readers, my yellow lab Bacchus and his friends. it has been awhile as i finished a new book called "Play in creative problem-solving" based in part on the work of Friedrich Froebel the inventor of Kindergarten. I probably could have named it "kindergarten for adults". it delves into the role and meaning of play as the glue and catalyst in creative problem-solving and applies to most fields and domains. available on amazon.

As i have mentioned often in previous posts, i am a fast painter and sometimes out paint my control and awareness, choosing too many colors or over-working washes. as an experiment, i went to a smaller brush size, a no. 18 Winsor Newton round in order to slow down and be a bit more deliberate in my wash techniques. i think it is working. i just had a painting accepted for exhibition by the Western Colorado Watercolor Society in Grand Junction CO, February and March 2017--still an effort at semi-impressionism and with more deliberation in the painting techniques.

i am currently working on a new series for exhibition in April and May 2017 at the Prima Bistro in Langley WA beginning March 28. the new series is entitled "Explorations in Landscape" and captures the many scenes from my past travels as a community designer in Alaska, British Columbia and Washington. i have avoided landscapes over the years as i was unsure how to infuse energy and character into them beyond realistic representation. so i have incorporated some new brush techniques with the smaller size brush, with more deliberations and yet keeping a merging and mingling technique in the washes for variety and character. i will add some images in a couple of days as i am photographing and framing this weekend. more later, keep painting. ron k

New Challenges: the human face and figure

For years I have been intimidated by the human face and figure so as i began work looking for a new topic to paint--what the heck--i decided to go after my biggest fear. And i am having fun with the challenges of technique and composition. i am using my friends from the local watering hole--Prima Bistro--in Langley WA as resource material and guinea pigs. And i certainly apologize for making them fatter, ugly and generally not themselves. i am relying a lot on three painters for guidance: Charles Reid (of course), Mel Stabin and Ted Nuttal; mostly Reid and Stabin for their expressiveness--Reid for his deliberate yet impressionist style and for Stabin for his faster painting energy.  Their impressionist approach fascinates me and inspires my work as i seek to be less tight and more fluid as i learn the techniques of painting the human form. the challenges of subtle lighting on the faces etc. is a real learning process for me and i now know will impact all of my painting no matter what the subject.

I have a show coming up at the Prima in Langley for April, May and June 2015 that hopefully will be exciting and fun with seven to nine large works. Stop by on First Saturday and have a glass of wine.

i have included a couple here and will add more as i progress over the next two weeks. The first painting is "Too Spicy?" of Red and Lucas at the Prima. the Second painting is "A Ferry Sunny Day", actually a selfie with Wendy Freitag on board the Alaska ferry the Matanuska in the Inside Passage some years back. i wanted to focus on the light and brightness of the day so i spent most of the energy on shadow shapes in mid-value range with a simple blue/orange color complement.  Hope you like it.

more to come...Keep painting, ron k

In Search of The Story

There are painters who will paint almost any topic as a demonstration of their ability to make a common element magical through watercolor technique. I certainly am not one of them. I need to get into the spirit of the topic in order to stimulate my painting effort. the last series, The Prima Kitchen, was actually a story on the chefs, line cooks and cooking process behind the scenes and was very successful. Unfortunately as i was low on funds and rushed to complete the exhibit i did not retain any quality images of the work and that was a mistake due to its reception by many folks. that won't happen again.

Once more i am on the search for a topic. I have spent many days going over old studies, photographs, slides etc. in search of a story. i am getting close, going back to my roots as an urban design consultant in small towns in the Pacific Northwest, BC and Canada. and now instead of just painting isolated images, i am threading together resource images of abandoned industrial buildings, mountain views from the Alaskan ferry and even groups of people in various clustered compositions on the ferry or in certain small towns. since i am not good at faces, the clusters and composition of the group become the strengths of the painting, not the facial features--one thing i struggled with and learned from the last "Prima Kitchen" series and exhibit.

Bottom line: what is the story? what is the spirit within the images that connects them? ahhhh. liking that.

Keep painting and i will check in in about two weeks as i get into composition and value studies.

Ron K

The Challenge of Over-working

I am one of those painters that too often just jumps in to my work and wind up over-painting, either too many colors, too bright or high key etc. trying to restrain myself and still keep the intensity is a challenge for sure. after struggling this late fall with works related to the last blog, i set that subject aside, did some reading and reflecting and came up with a an obvious but ignored (by me) technique to step back. Namely, select a simple contrast and stick to it! in this case and the example included below, "Kitchen Kollaboration", i simply restricted myself to a color  complement principle: orange and blue, orange gray and blue grays with a touch of subtle blue green at a diagonal (bottle upper corner and plates in lower right). otherwise the dominant color complement is orange and blue. boy, did it make a big difference in that i was not over-coloring, creating too much distraction in color and forgetting value. the simple complement enabled me to focus on value and composition rather than trying to represent every shape in the composition.   i hope this helps as it really set me on a fun course again and i now have four done in this new series on the Kitchens of Langley.  Have fun and keep painting, Ron K.

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

Eagle Emergent

Well it has been a while but I am back and trying to paint. Have been working on a new book as well that involves the reintegration of "play" into the professional design and art fields. Based on the works of Fredrich Froebel and others. Fun and stimulating.
I just finished a new eagle for my latest series entitled "Eagle Emergent" and really enjoyed painting this one. Trying once more to break out of familiar patterns. Am trying to go after more color and boldness. Still overworking on the new paintings as the lure of detail is overpowering in the animal series I am working on--american bison for example. they are winning so far but i will continue to try to capture the power of the bison without rendering each tuft of fur!

anyway, here is the Eagle Emergent so let me have comments if you like. one disappointment is the limited background design but i felt the eagle itself was as a positive shape very active and decided to go with a very simple background. More later and keep painting. Ron K