Niko

This is a painting of my wife's British lab, she always has an intense look when waiting for treats. The big challenge is painting an all black dog! Once I looked close at the pictures I took of her, tying to figure out how I could do this, I realized that I wasn't just painting the color but the reflection and shine on her coat. Now I look at everything different.

Niko 6x8 watercolor

Bluejay Splashing

Bluejay Splashing; Just finished another watercolor painting of a Bluejay splashing. Lots of fun. Water goes everywhere and trying to capture the sense of motion is a challenge.

Bluejay Splashing 7x9 watercolor

Posting one of my sculptures. This one on my metal large birds I call the Odd-stritch. All found scrap metal and some time with the welder  she stands in my wife's garden keeping an eye on things. It stands about 5' (1.3m). 

Keeping an an eye on things

Standing on one leg after taking a step in the right direction 

I came across a photo of great horned owl with an expression that struck a chord in me. I decided to capture it. What is see and what my wife sees in the expression is very different. What do you see?

Great Horned Owl 11 x 14

I recently saw a video clip of sparrows in a bird bath on Instagram, I decided to play around with the concept of showing the Titmouse splashing in the water. The result is interesting and I may decide to do a series around this concept.

Splashing Titmouse 11 x 9

I have started to frame some of my paintings with a simple cedar frame that I make from local white cedar trees. I am not putting the painting under glass but I am treating the paper with a UV protective coating. It think that the framing enhances the final result.

Morning Dove 12 x 4

Best painting so far. The Kestrel is a great challenge to paint and tried to be very loose in my approach. Still working on getting a better photography setup. The left side is not as dark as in the photo. I cut the paint ion off my new stretcher board and mounted it to a cedar frame as a floating base with 2 sided tape leaving the raw paper edge exposed.

Kestrel 10 x 14

This is the first painting that I did with stretched paper. I made a stretching board on 3/4 nick maple plywood where I cut slots all the way around the board. Them used a screen installation spline roller to tuck in the paper. I then used robber spline stretched and pressed  into the slot to hold the paper while it dried. I like the way it paints.

This a painting of a Tufted Titmouse that I painted on a watercolor paper panel that I made. I saw YouTube video on stretching paper and thought it looked good and having scraps in the wood box I gave it a shot. It actually turned out well. I painted this piece and even painted the papered edge that wrapped around the frame. Just need to spray with a UV protector and varnish. 

Painted a sleeping readtail hawk a and really enjoyed the paint process and am pleased with the results on the back. I added a light background and I achieved the look I was going for.

Red tail Hawk. 10 x 14

October 16. Painting this weekend resulted in a couple of interesting pieces.  I painted the rest of the sleeping mourning Dove and decided I like the negative space and positioning of the bird in the corner as a peaceful composition.

Mourning Dove 10 x 14

October 8th,

Working on a variety of projects and my current watercolour painting project is a mourning dove. I did paint a few other practice pages this week but nothing I can post. This is an in progress pic of my painting. I will post pics of the table I am working on later in the week.

October 3 - The end of the 30 in 30 painting challenge and I want to paint more than ever.

Barn Owl, this is the painting that I was working on over the weekend. I have always liked owls and had this photo in my archives that always struck me a a great pose. I took on the challenge of painting the piece. I wanted to capture the eyes from that photo, and I got close. I purchased some new paper for painting, the Arches 140lb cold pressed watercolor pad, and i can say that it is very nice paper.

Barn Owl 10 x 14

I will be posting twice a week, showing what I am working and hopefully complete each week. For now my focus is on watercolor paintings, but will I also post other creative projects as I complete them.

October 1 The day after the 30 in 30

Today we were asked to post a collage of the paintings of completed in the 30 in 30. I got sidetracked from painting today by finishing the roof repairs to the sun room, I hope to use it until it gets to cold to paint in. I am working on an Owl and will post soon.

30 in 30

A review of the 30 in 30 challenge.

I painted all the pieces in a watercolor book each one occupying a separate block. Not a bad collection for my fit ever venture into watercolor. This is the setup I worked with to do my 30 in 30.

The pages from the book ...

Day 30 of the 30 in 30 painting challenge. The last day and today I and i ended up deviating from my normal structure of painting full birds. I accidentally had to jump into a new style, one that I have admired for other artists. I have admired the paintings of Karl Martens, and you need to check out his work if you like this piece, his will blow you away.

I painted the White Throated Sparrow and focused on the head first. Once I finished I was starting to work on the back when I accidentally brushed the paper with a fully loaded brush in a place I wasn't going to paint. From there I just went for the flowing looks you see here. Glad it worked out so well.

This has been  wondrous journey into a completely new form of art for me. It did take some discipline to paint regularly and publish a piece every day. Tomorrow I will post all my paintings from my painting pad together.

White Throated Sparrow 4x6

Day 29, 30 in 30 painting challenge. Almost at the end, and I final did a predominately black bird that is starting to look good. the Dark Eyed Junco is a winter visitor and I just couldn't give up on painting black birds.This has been great fun and a tremendous new challenge. I don't look at anything the same way, now I keep thinking, how would I paint that. Looking over the past posts i see i will have to get better at photographing my work, the image on the blog are not as nice as the actual paintings.

Dark Eyed Junco 4 x 6

Day 28 of the 30 in 30 painting challenge. Can't believe it's almost over. I will continue to paint and post here as I do more works. Today was a painting of a Mourning Dove sitting on a post. To fit in my 4 x 6 space I had to paint smaller. This was a brand new challenge.

Mourning Dove 4x6

Day 27, 30 in 30 painting challenge. Today I painted an Evening Grosbeak, high contrasts with the yellows and some hard black elements made this a challenge. Altogether it is not a bad piece and I even like the branch. The beak is a challenge here, as it is almost an ivory white and a large feature on the bird.

Evening Grosbeak 4 x 6

Day 26 of the 30 in 30. The subject for today was the Northern Mockingbird. I worked with much lighter washes and tried it keep the colors flowing. I paid more attention to the eye as this bird has brown eyes not black like most other song birds.

Norther Mockingbird  4 x 6

Day 25 of 30 in 30 painting challenge. Today I tried another black brid with mixed results. The Canada Warbler is an elusive bird biding in dense bushes, it appears to be elusive to paint properly also. The perspective on the painting failed some due to the difficulties in rendering the blak wings properly.

Canada Warbler 4x6

Day 24 of 30 in 30; I drifted away from song birds to include a Sandpiper. A shore and meadow bird that I have seen along the lake. I didn't do feet, just legs but I wanted to show it wading just for the fun of it. Still having a ball and considering doing a few larger pieces for the end of the challenge.

Sandpiper 4 x 6