Last show of the Season!

An art show at the location where this painting was done! It was not on my schedule, but when the promotor called, I could not resist. At the Oxacan Village in North Scottsdale. I'll be there this weekend, April 18 and 19.

Intersection of Pima Rd and Pinnacle Peak Rd, look for white tents and red/white balloons! The weather will be gorgeous, so come, see us!

Foxy

I used an old calendar photo by a friend of a friend (Stan Keiser) as the inspiration for a spring watercolor of a non-Arizona animal. I loved those Red Foxes when I lived in Europe. But I think for my painting it's definitely better to stick to fresher, directer impressions.
Framed in a nice natural wood frame that picks up Foxy's coat it looks very nice now. 
See more of my wildlife images here

Montezuma Quail

I have my prints in a little gallery in Patagonia, close to Nogales AZ. The area is biologically so rich (one of the most diverse in the US) that it attracts birders, researchers, conservationists and also hunters.
In grasslands and canyons, there are several indigenous species of quail plus the Bobwhite that was released from captive bred stock.

Now my gallery asked for the most typical one, the one that has been used as the logo of several birding festivals ... but also the most tricky one for a watercolor painter. It's the Montezuma Quail. The male's head is over-sized and looks nearly disk-like in profile, but most of all, it's the high-contrast grey and white spotting of the chest and the gold and dark fish-tail pattern of the back that characterize the birds. Not an easy task for a watercolor painter.

On the other hand, our facebook group Birding - Arizona and the Southwest offered plenty of great reference material, especially the photos by Peggy Coleman and Tony Battiste.
Anticipating substantial 'up-tightening' while painting the feather details of the male, I tried to tie the birds into the background and model the shapes somewhat before starting on those spots. No further painting before it's thoroughly dry after this.

I know that I have a hard timekeeping patterns from becoming too regular and repetitive if I tried it freehand. So I took the time for a careful and detailed drawing. Then I loaded a big brush with a nice point to get all the dark of the chest down quickly without interruption and so the paint stayed wet enough that I was able to float in pigments that could nicely spread out.

After completing the dark spots of the back and wings, I applied a deeper gold colored wash, letting the brush pick up some of the darker pigments from the spots to soften them and lifting some pigment to lighten areas that received the most light from above. Trying to keep it soft and edge-less there. 

Some harder edges and contrast in the foreground were necessary to push the birds back into the painting. And of course some feathers and eyes for the female - also grounding her on those great sturdy feet. All birds in the chicken family prefer running to flying and have the feet for it!



The finished watercolor will be framed in a 16in by 20in  frame and will be exhibited for the first time at my next art show in Gold Canyon in 2 weeks. The Patagonia gallery of the Creative Spirit Artists will receive gallery-wrapped canvas giclee prints and matted paper prints in several sizes.

A very nice show put on by SAACA

Shows that don't allow tents can be challenging and I usually stay away from them. But if done just right, they can also integrate artists and surroundings to form a great experience for everybody. The Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance succeeded with their  show at La Encantada in the Tucson foothills. Of course, the very friendly weather helped. Some visitors stayed all day Saturday and showed up again on Sunday, bringing kids and dogs and lots of interest in art.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

photo by Doris Evans

First Painting of 2015 - Mia with Daffodils

Another commission - and again, a cat. This time I had nice photos to work with. I would have liked a larger format than the quarter sheet that the client wanted.

The cat was to be in a natural setting and one of the photos showed her with daffodils, and what's nicer for a spring time painting? But the pretty tortoise shell cat was staring out of the photo in a rather non-committal way, so I first planned to establish a focal point for the cat's eyes in one of the flowers ... but the cat might have looked cross-eyed because it's sitting so close to the flowers. I liked a slight tilt of the head anyway, and definitely some open daffodils instead of the bunch of buds.
I decided on a simplified the background, keeping the deep forest greens to support the outdoor scene and provide some contrast to show off the cat, but with some of the reds and golds of the tortie's fur mixed in to keep some unity through-out the painting.

When I thought I was done I noticed that the dark part of the cat's shoulder ended just behind the central flower. Somehow the flower seemed to lie flat against the cat. Letting a bit of the dark fur show on the right side of the flower added the needed dimension and depth.

If I had taken the photo, I would have chosen side lighting with a clearer direction and more shadows. (Easy in Arizona's clear sunshine). But it was interesting to work from photos that were obviously taken in much more diffuse lighting conditions. Thus, three-dimensionality is more difficult to achieve but the colors are more true.
Another critical look at it tomorrow, and then it should be ready to be shipped to its owner.

A New Year

First of all, my best wishes to all my friends and customers for the Year 2015!
I hope to see you all again at my shows.
For next spring I have added some venues that seem promising and open up new markets. I hope it works out! Please see my events schedule.

I also upgraded my giclee printer form a rather old Epson Stylus Pro 9800 to a brand new
 Canon iPF8400. It also prints up to 44 inches wide, but it uses 12 colors!
I also found that one set of chrome pigment inks sets me back by over $1250. Ouch!

The printer is 6 inches longer than the old one to accommodate the extra cartridges. Of course I measured whether it would fit into the place in my studio where the old one sat. But when it was delivered on a huge truck with a fork lift it turned out that it compared to the old one like a minivan to an upright piano. It did not fit through any doors or hallway.
 So it came in through the patio door into the bed room, and there it stayed. With its own designated PC.

But the great news is that new printing media and more colors are available and even my old trusted products like the 6x8 canvas blogs seem to shine in a new radiance. So I am very happy with the change and I have already sold many new prints at my 2 December shows.

The prices for prints will not change much. They are still somewhat lower at shows than over the internet to encourage sales at the booth. Please go to the page 'Prices for art-prints and printing services'  on this blog. It overrides all older prices anywhere on the internet.

Jan's Agave

As a biologist, I have many friends among zoologists and botanists. One of them is a great cactus and succulent gardener in the Mojave Desert of NW Arizona. He grows some of the most spectacular Agaves from all over the Americas. 

About this one Jan says:

This singularly colorful specimen of Agave guadalajarana is growing in a lovely private garden in Escondido, California. Fresh marginal teeth along the leaves are shades of yellow and orange as they emerge from the central conical bud, and age to darker red and eventually nearly black on the oldest leaves. Set against the glaucous waxy blue of the leaf cuticle, it presents a highly decorative effect.

 Agaves have always been among my favorite painting subjects, even though I regularly struggle somewhat with their complexity.  I was particularly attracted to the juicy complementary colors of the central core, playing against the much starker light and dark contrast of the older leaves in the periphery.

This painting is framed to the size of 22 in by 28 in and will be introduced at the Fountain Hills Arts and Craft Festival from November 14 to 16. 

See you there!