Sketchbook...

 A few Old Sturbridge Village entries from my watercolor sketchbook... freehand painting with #8 and #4 Da Vinci Cosmotop Spin brushes. 






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Staying cool

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During this heat wave (due to end by Thursday 6/25, I hope), I've hunkered down in my air-conditioned studio. Prior to temperatures going well above 85 F, I picked a handful of roses from our garden, knowing they'd provide a range of shapes/colors for a quick watercolor. Rather than replicate the dining room table-top where my reference photo was taken, I chose a more dreamy alternative that wouldn't overpower the fragile appearance of the flowers.  I chose a limited palette of transparent or semi-transparent colors for this painting. W&N Permanent Rose; W&N Sap Green; W&N Transparent Yellow; W&N Winsor Orange; Holbein Opera. I did use a semi-opaque color for the leaves/stems –– W&N Indanthrene Blue. I used this also for the background mixed with sap green plus a lot of water.  After pencilling in a basic outline, I painted the background and allowed it to dry completely before doing the roses and the vase. Details about how to purchase this painting are...
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"Points of View" show at Cape Cod Art Center

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"Road to Town" watercolor on paper  14.5" x 18.5" matted & framed A few months ago, I signed up to participate in a collaborative project at the Cape Cod Art center in Barnstable, Massachusetts. I posted a few of my warm-up sketches in the "Cloud Technique" entry here on my blog (3/9/2025). The artist guidelines for the exhibition were clear: "Select a photograph to interpret. Do NOT copy exactly." Because I've always enjoyed painting winter scenes, I chose this stunning photo, created by Stuart Cooperrider , as a reference. As I worked on (and discarded) multiple early versions of the painting, it gradually became clear that my watercolor rendition of the photographer's sweeping panorama could be enhanced by a living presence. A pair of horses in the foreground seemed to be a good solution... 
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Cloud technique

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I've signed up to participate in the Cape Cod Art Center's juried artists' show, "Points of View" (it will run from June 16 - July 11). My reference photo, a landscape with a distinctive cloudy sky, was chosen from a collection of images provided by juried photographers at CCAC. The goal is to present my own watercolor interpretation of the image (rather than an exact copy). It's a great challenge and a lot of fun to mess around with various techniques. Since I have several months to complete the painting, I'm giving myself free reign, and madly practicing how to paint clouds. Stormy skies, sunny skies, rainy skies, winter and summer skies -- all are fair game. I can't wait to see how this challenge turns out. In the meantime, here are three quick studies, two completed earlier this week, and another that's a work-in-progress. Late Winter Sky, study Late Winter, study Winter Clouds, study (step 1)
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