Watercolor Artist Blog

Paint a Watercolor Portrait in 4 Simple Steps

Kelly — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:50:37 GMT

Watercolor Secrets contributor and Splash veteran Fealing Lin loves painting watercolors spontaneously. “Spontaneity can be merely an illusion if you don’t appreciate the nature of the medium,” says Lin. “I constantly squint my eyes to generalize the shapes, leaving the facial features and other details for last.” Here’s a look at her process in action.

Reference Photo

1 DRAWING THE LIKENESS
I drew the image with a 3B pencil, making the pencil lines dark enough to sustain the first color wash. I added small dots of frisket for the spots of light in the ribbon and the ribbon’s shadow.

2 APPLYING THE LIGHT-VALUE WASH
I set my easel at a steep 70-degree angle. This allowed the colors to run and mingle when I applied the light-value wash over the pencil lines and the background using the wet-into-wet method.

3 CREATING THE LIGHT AND SHADOW PATTERN
I used light-medium values to shape the light and shadow patterns at this stage (both cast shadows and form shadows). Cast shadows can be rendered with hard edges, but form shadows need softened edges.

4 COMPLETING THE FACIAL FEATURES AND DETAILS
I completed the facial features and details with all the light and dark values. I erased the frisket and made necessary touch-ups. I used a craft knife to scrape thin lines into her hair.

Fealing Lin’s work will also be featured in the upcoming Splash 11: New Directions, due out in May 2010. Visit the Splash website to learn more about their current competition Splash 12: Celebrating Artistic Vision. Deadline to enter is December 15th, 2009.

5 Tips for Painting Water from Charles Reid

Kelly — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:41:12 GMT

1. Water should be painted with hard edges between the light from the sky and the reflections from trees, buildings or boats.

2. Paint wet-in-wet within the reflections but rarely where the reflection meets the sunlight.

3. For distant water on the horizon, try moist Antwerp blue or peacock blue (Holbein). Sometimes I use ultramarine violet if the horizon line of the sea seems very dark.

4. In shallow water, use diluted Antwerp blue, peacock blue or Winsor blue. These are all transparent blues that retain their color identity when diluted.

5. Sometimes water near the shore can turn a delicate turquoise green. You can add turquoise green to your palette, or simply mix diluted cadmium yellow pale or lemon yellow with one of the diluted blues to achieve the same color.

For more painting tips from Charles Reid, check out:

the cover story in the August 2009 issue of Watercolor Artist (magazine)
Charles Reid's Watercolor Solutions (book)
Watercolor Secrets with Charles Reid (online video workshop)

Watercolors in Nashville

Jessica — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:01:49 GMT

Last weekend, while in Nashville, Tennessee (look for the town in the upcoming "Where It's At" column in the October issue), I had the opportunity to visit the Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art—a truly fantastic place for both lush gardens and top-notch art. What surprised me about the attraction wasn’t the 1932 mansion or its 100 acres of land, but rather what hung on the walls around us.

We got to catch “A Century on Paper,” prints, drawings and watercolors from the museum’s collection by renowned and lesser-known artists—some of which haven’t been exhibited in 20 years. And as for the well-known artists, think John Marin, Thomas Hart Benton, Georgia O’Keeffe, Robert Rauschenberg.

Below are some photos (of the gardens), but I definitely recommend seeing it for yourself if you’re going to be in the Nashville area before Sept. 21.

Colorful Thoughts

Jessica — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:14:29 GMT

Having just returned from New York, where I caught Color Chart at MOMA, I’ve got color on the brain. Aside from the few waves of Stendhal Syndrome set on by the museum’s stellar collection, I found the exhibition as thought provoking as it was easy on the eyes. “Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today” looks at contemporary artists’ color decisions for chance, readymade source or arbitrary systems and the beauty that follows.

Particularly interesting was viewing Robert Rauschenberg’s 8-by-almost-11-foot mixed media collage Rebus (shown here). The artist, influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s Tu m’ (also part of the show), wanted to depict paint as a commercial product and, as our docent explained, he bought unlabeled quarts of surplus paint because they were cheap and made a rule for himself that he had to use each can at least once, no matter the color. Talk about a limited palette! Check the website to view the rest of the exhibition online.

Speaking of color, that’s how social networking site for selling music Guitarati is organizing its music. Click here for details from Wired.

Watercolor Masterpieces from the Brooklyn Museum

Jessica — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:55:01 GMT

Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Sunday on the Beach (about 1896-98; watercolor on cream, moderately thick, moderately tuxtured wove paper). Brooklyn Museum

When we received word several months ago that the Taft Museum of Art’s exhibition lineup would include From Winslow Homer to Edward Hopper: American Watercolor Masterpieces from the Brooklyn Museum (which we featured in our February issue: "Where It's At"), we knew we would be taking a field trip. We did so on Wednesday, and I can think of no better way to recharge our editorial batteries for the remainder of the week.

The recently opened exhibition features 70 stellar watercolors from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection, chronicling the rise of the medium in America and shifts in technique over the years. The Brooklyn Museum was the first American art museum to start collecting watercolors, so it only makes sense that all of the greats are included, and several works from some—Eakins, Sargent, Hassam, Prendergast, Marin, Marsh (and, naturally, Homer and Hopper). Going through the exhibition, you're able to see these artists progressively finding and tuning their creative voices.

Personal highlights: The first piece that caught my attention as I turned the corner and walked into the second gallery was none other than Sargent's breathtaking In a Levantine Port, which bears a striking resemblance to his White Boats (that ran in our December issue's "Studio Staples" column). In the section on Modernism, I overheard a woman behind me say to her female friend who was pushing her wheelchair over to Prendergast’s Sunday on the Beach: “That’s a Prendergast, I just know it!” How refreshing to see firsthand a public thirst for water(color). Thanks to the Taft—and Brooklyn Museum—for quenching ours.

Updates on the International Invitational Watermedia Exhibition

Jessica — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:00:20 GMT

As we mentioned in the February issue of the magazine, the first Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary International Watermedia Masters opened Nov. 19 in Nanjing, China, marking the first formal international event of its kind in the country. Cheng-Khee Chee was asked to nominate the American artists who would participate; below is part of a letter he sent to them after he returned to the U.S. from China. How we wish we could’ve attended!

After recuperating for a few days, I am ready to report all the excitement I experienced in China. The following are some highlights.

The welcoming banquet, 6 p.m. Monday night, Nov. 19
The banquet was attended by about 80 people, including exhibiting artists, invited artists, officials of the Jiangsu Union of Literature and Fine Arts, the Jiangsu Watercolor Research Institute and government dignitaries. As always, the banquet was an elaborate feast of 12 courses.

The opening ceremony, 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, Nov. 20
The stage was set at the main entrance of the Nanjing Library, a magnificent ultra modern building. Guests of honor lined up in front of the long silk ribbon adorned with huge silk bouquets. Madam Yang Chengzhi, vice president of the Jiangsu Provincial International Cultural Exchange Association of China, delivered the opening remarks, followed by me representing the exhibiting artists. Twelve people cut the ribbon at the same time, and the show was officially opened. Several hundred visitors swarmed into the exhibition hall. The hall is large, well lit, and paintings were very professionally framed and presented. Paintings were grouped by continent: North America, Europe and Asia. The quality of works seems to vary quite a bit. Our [U.S.] section drew the most attention. It really stole the show!

The watermedia forum, 2-4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 20
About 40 artists, art historians and art critics participated in this forum. Topics included the responses to the show, exchange of ideas of the medium, future plans and supports for similar international activities, and prospects of the watercolor paintings in the future.

The exhibition catalog
The exhibition catalog is elegant! The reproduction quality is super! It is far beyond my expectation! It is sad to know that only 1,000 copies were printed. I understand the various provincial governmental agencies will take a cut of more than half of the edition. They take great pride of this publication and want to present them as handsome gifts.

The travel show planning
The response to the exhibition is overwhelming. Many organizations are already requesting for the show to travel to their areas. After Nanjing, the exhibition will travel to Yangzhou, a historic as well as artistic city northeast of Nanjing. It is well known for the school of eight innovative painters in the Qing Dynasty. We are not sure what other cities the show will go to. Professor Li Chi-mao of the National Taiwan Fine Arts University, who was a guest of honor at the event, is planning to select about half of the show to travel to Taiwan at the end of the Mainland China circuit. It looks like the ball is just beginning to roll! This will give both the artists and the watercolor medium a great exposure.

Other activities, Nov. 21-22
The sightseeing trips included the Ming Tomb, the Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Monument, the Jiangsu Province Art Museum, a boat ride at night on the famous romantic Qinhuai River, and general city tours. I gave a slide presentation and demonstration at the School of Fine Arts of the South East University on Nov. 21.

The farewell banquet, Nov. 23
Most of the guests left. There were only about 20 artists, mostly from outside Mainland China, who attended the banquet. Everyone sat at the same huge round table. It was a warm and cozy atmosphere. As always, the dinner was a 12-course feast!

The Best of the Best of 2007

Kelly — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:53:05 GMT

It's end of the year list making time, and I couldn't resist making one of my own. So here are a few of my favorite items from this year's lists.

• From Time magazine's list of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007, "A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years: 1917-1932" by John Richardson (608 pages, $40 list price, $26.40 on Amazon). This third installment of a multi-volume biography chronicles "Picasso's transition from his Bohemian youth to wealth, fame and marriage, and then to a romance with a very young mistress."

• From InStyle.com's list of the Best Gifts for Book Lovers, "30,000 Years of Art" by the editors of Phaidon Press (1072 pages, $49.95 list price, $29.97 on Amazon). The cool thing about this anthology is that it arranges pieces from around the world on time lines of major world events and art movements, offering you a unique look at what was happening at different times around the globe.

• Time.com also put together a list of the Top Ten Museum Exhibits of 2007, which doesn't do you much good, I suppose, if you missed them, but it was interesting to see the artists and styles that drew attention this year.

• And The New York Times critics published their picks for the best art and architecture books of the year. More good ideas if you still have some holiday shopping to do—or just need a good book to read this winter.

Are there any other art-related year end lists that I've missed? I'd love to hear about them. Click on Comments below to let me know. (By the way, you don't have to fill in your e-mail, if you don't want it published.)

Art in the Computer Age: Electronic Seurat Sketches

Kelly — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:45:31 GMT

Through January 7, the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) is hosting a unique exhibition of Georges Seurat’s works on paper—once described as “the most beautiful painter's drawings in existence.”

Though he’s perhaps best known for his stylized pointillist paintings, this exhibition demonstrates a livelier and often grittier side to Seurat’s oeuvre. With the touch of a finger, visitors to the exhibition can flip through electronic versions of four of the artist’s surviving sketchbooks (the real things are under glass nearby). In contrast to the refined elegance of "A Sunday on the Grande Jatte," these deftly crafted conté drawings of farmers wielding scythes, women scrubbing floors and men sleeping on park benches offer a glimpse of the shabbier side of late 19th-century metropolitan Paris.

But don't fret if a trip to New York isn't in your plans. You can enjoy a similar interactive experience on MoMA’s website, which also lets you “flip” through digital images of the artist’s drawings—likely the greatest access to a master’s sketchbook you’re ever going to get.

Photo courtesy of MoMA website.

Chuck Close Encounters

Kelly — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:46:21 GMT

I was surprised to learn recently that Chuck Close suffers from prosopagnosia (otherwise known as face blindness) and has difficulty recognizing or remembering faces. Yet, ironically, his iconic in-your-face (pardon the pun) face paintings have been his claim to fame for 40 years.

When Close first burst onto the art scene in the late ’60s with billboard-sized black-and-white portraits, he redefined what portraiture could be. His most recent work, painterly "prismatic grids," offers us yet another take on the genre.

In the book Chuck Close: Work, Christopher Finch brings all of Close's paintings together, as well as a selection of the artist's prints and personal photographs. The images lose something in scale, of course, but in terms of sheer volume (more than 300 illustrations) and insight into the artist's work and personality, the collection is awesome. I ordered my copy on Amazon.com.

Close is also the inspiration for a new ballet, C to C (Close to Chuck), which made its world premiere on October 27 at the American Ballet Theatre in New York. The ballet includes music composed by friend and frequent subject Philip Glass and backdrops designed by Close.

NPR recently rebroadcast an interview with Close on its Fresh Air program. Take a listen here.

Joe Andoe’s Jubilee City

Jessica — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:15:24 GMT

Although it’s laced more with musings on dysfunctional family ties and hard-knocks upbringing than his emergence into the New York City art world, Joe Andoe’s memoir Jubilee City does edify on why one pursues art and vice versa. It reads how I imagine Dukes of Hazzard might’ve played out if Luke and Bo had gone to art school—in a good way.

How Andoe, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, native arrived at art in the first place is odd. Where most artists come to it following a childhood dream, he admits it was because he discovered the teacher in his Tulsa Junior College art class sold his watercolors for $900 each—and he thought he could paint just as well as his teacher.

However, 25 years later, his commitment to a career in visual art remains; Andoe’s works are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, among other venues, and his short stories have been published as well in journals Open City, Bomb and Bald Ego. Particularly interesting in Jubilee City: A Memoir at Full Speed are stories of the NYC gallery scene, crooked art dealers and pseudo-artists.

Check out some of Andoe’s paintings and prints at www.joeandoe.com.

Look Forward to Moving On: The Art of Steve Hanks

Kelly — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:24:55 GMT

In our April 2007 issue, we brought you the gorgeous figure paintings of New Mexico artist Steve Hanks. Now he's working on a book of his watercolors to be published this November by the Greenwich Workshop Press. Deeply personal, the work in the book is informed by the emotional drama of the artist's own life, in particular his healing after a painful divorce and struggling to get on with his life. "I want my whole body of work to tell a story when I'm gone," he told us. "It will tell the story of my life emotionally."

If you like Hanks' work, you won't be disappointed!