‘Celtic Dancer‘

This is a 9 x 12 watercolor on Ampersand aquabord (Claybord textured) museum series  panel.  It is finished with a spray varnish and framed like an oil painting.

The model was a pretty young girl at a local Celtic festival, complete with the ringlet curls all the dancers wore.

I recently saw watercolors on panel at the Easton Waterfowl Festival and wanted to give them a try.

Painting on the panel is unlike painting on paper or canvas and would take some getting used to.  I think I’ll stick to watercolor on paper and oil on canvas.

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This is a painting of one of my grandsons in front of a mosaic wall.  I had done a similar painting of my niece and it was accepted into the National WC show, so I did this one as an entry for the American Watercolor Society.  Whether it gets in or not, I am happy with it and like the fun effect of the mosaic.

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My First Attempt

These flowers were painted on 140 lb. watercolor paper stretched over an 8 x 10 canvas.  (An artist friend, Ona Kingdon, put how to do this step by step on her blog.  To see it, go to www.emotiveexpressions.blogspot.com and scroll down to the October 8th entry.)  Painting on the stretched paper was a joy and painting the sides was not as hard as I thought it would be.

Finishing

You can see the nice effects of the salt I put in the background wash while wet.  When I use salt, I spray the finished painting with a special spray to neutralize the pH.  Next, I sprayed it with a fixative for watercolors.  Now I’m going to varnish it and frame it like an oil.  (Used: Archival Mist, Aquarell-Fixativ)

Problems

Stretching my paper over an 8 x 10 canvas was easier than varnishing the stretcher bars and cutting a backboard, but the bulk of the paper and the canvas made it too thick to fit in a standard frame.  So much for shortcuts.

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This is a watercolor painting, size 16 x 20, done for an invitational exhibit to be held at the York Art Association in 2012.

Artistic License

When I photographed this stream, it was dead summer and everything was green – the trees and the water.  I used my imagination to add color to the trees.

One common mistake artists make is to draw the shore with a single straight line.  Real shore lines often disappear in and out under the trees.  If you try a scene like this, pay close attention to catch the reality of the weeds and rocks that border the water.

Celebrating fall and football with a little boy's pride - watercolor- private collection.

 Fall  Is Finally Here!

This happy football fan is the grandson of a friend of mine.  I painted his face as a watercolor demonstration for my Tuesday afternoon class.  I loved the light on his face and smug smile.

I did the background on wet paper, dropping in paint and salt.

Make Your Subject Look Special

This is my favorite painting from all the demonstrations I did for my watercolor class this term.

I was demonstrating many ways of making you image look ‘special’.  In this case, I started with color around the figure, then added water and let the edges fade out.

The opposite, which also works, would be to make it darker around the edges, getting lighter in value as it approached the figure or center of interest.

Limited Palette

I promote using a limited palette, five colors at most for one painting.  (I’ve read that with only three colors, you can mix over a million different shades.)  I’m finding it true in my oils, as well as my watercolors.

Using a limited palette will make your paintings look more professional, as everything will be unified by color.

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Walnut Grocery, a scene from Reading, Pennsylvania during a snow storm.

I had gone to judge an art show at the Goggleworks Art Center that day and went out to take photos after judging.

It was almost too cold to snow – the wind was shooting me with hard pellets of snow and I worried about scratching my camera lens.

Even with gloves, scarf and winter coat, I could only stand it about fifteen minutes.  Then my fingers would be too numb to hold the camera safely, and I would dash back in the Goggleworks to warm up.

It was worth it.  The small study that I did of the same street, farther down, won two awards in Illinois and has been sold to a collector in Colorado.

This watercolor painting won the Watercolor Award of Excellence at it’s first show in York, Pennsylvania.

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Long Hair and Innocence – 24 x 18″ watercolor on watercolor canvas

This is my first try at painting on watercolor canvas, but I think I like it.  I took the photo I did this from at a national park near Philadelphia.  This young girl swung around and I was impressed at her beautiful long braid, shining in the sunlight.  I just suggested the barn in the background and saved my detail work for her.

This is a small painting, titled Trash Day.  I went to judge an art show at the Goggleworks in Reading, PA last winter, during a snow storm.  I know I’m kind of crazy to drive when the roads are mostly blown shut, but I wanted to also take photos of the town during the storm.  Some people don’t get the day off, even during blizzards – our poor, unsung heros, the garbage man.  This painting is currently at a juried exhibition in Illinois and here’s an email I received -

This is “Heading For The Weekend“, a new original (watercolor) figurative painting.

‘Debi Watson’ No More

I recently wrote in my newsletter that I feel ‘Debi’ doesn’t sound like a serious artist.  I asked a gallery owner and he agreed.

After all, Andrew Wyeth wasn’t called Andy.

And initials are even better.  (think N.C. Wyeth)

After getting a lot of feedback from my readers, I decided to go with Deb Watson.  It is easier to remember and spell correctly?  I’ll be changing over gradually.