First brushstoke

For me, the last brushstoke is always the hardest. In particular, deciding which brushstoke should be the last, since watercolor punishes you with exponential severity for carrying on too long. By comparison, the first mark is easy... It could go almost anywhere.

New small watercolor

"Windex," 2013, watercolor, 8 x 6 in.

In the studio

What's on the drawing board today? Constant Comment...

Crazy busy

Sorry I haven't been posting much of anything here in far too long. I was doing a lot of watercolor commissions in 2012, and also working on some oil paintings for the first time in six years. Here is one example of my usual type of subject matter in oil paint instead of watercolor, and almost nearly sort of completed. (This is the disadvantage of oils over watercolors in the hands of the obsessive compulsive...)


Untitled, 36 x 24 in., oil on linen

Here is a detail view...



And yes, I'm still cooking up new watercolors too...

Thanks for looking!

Small something

A smallish watercolor recently off the drawing board...

This is the first watercolor portrait I've done in decades...
It was an experiment of sorts, as well as a gift.

Happy watercolor holidays

Finally finishing up this watercolor that has been on and off my drawing board for almost a year now. I think I definitely need to paint more pebbles! I've had one cheap student-grade watercolor brush for years that still points way better than my top of the line W&N brushes, but I think I nearly wore it out on all these little details...


Sparky, 2012, watercolor, 20 x 15 in.

To create the source image, I actually did immerse a string of outdoor holiday lights in a fish bowl on a window shelf and then plugged them into a GFCI outlet in the kitchen. Surprisingly, they worked just fine underwater!

Watercolor portrait

Something different than my usual subjects -- this watercolor portrait of my kids...