Barbara Sailor has kindly awarded me the Kreative blogger Award and requested that I write seven bits of information about my art discoveries. So here goes:
1.My parents supplied lots of materials for my childhood exploration of art including paint by the number projects, watercolor, graphite, and color pencil sets, and lots of paper.
2. I was fortunate to have had a high school art teacher, Mr Max Bunnell, who allowed and encouraged his students to try every art media the school offered. He trusted us enough to send us out during our afternoon art periods to draw old buildings, trees, and anything else that captured our attention in the small community where I gew up. He had us work with chalk and oil pastels, watercolor, oils, graphite, charcoal, color pencil, block printing, frame making, photography.
3. My lovely wife has always encouraged and enabled my love of art. She has supplied such things as work tables and lights (which crowded our small bedroon until our children grew up and moved out), and she has insisted that I always have on hand lots of paint, paper, brushes, and framing supplies. All she has requested in return is her choice of any paintings I complete.
4. Of all the media I tried in school, watercolor was the least appealing because I had such a difficult time making it do what I wanted.
5. I took only one college art class: Contour Drawing, hated it for the most part(except for the fact that I was one of only two guys in a class of about a dozen lovely young ladies) and earned a C+ for my efforts.
6. I was in a bookstore several years ago and came across the book Watercolor Painting Techniques by David Lewis, and decided to give watercolor another try. Some twenty five years later I now possess over 60 books dealing with watercolor.
7. I am a self taught painter, although 20 plus years ago I attended workshops by Frank Webb, Cathy Johnson, Linda Dahl, and Carol Orr. Since then I've tried to use the things I have learned from my book collection and from the workshops to develop my own style. Still, I think it is important to keep an open mind and continue to discover what works for other artists. I especially enjoy thumbing through the Splash publications, edited by Rachel Wolf. I have five of these books, and I am inspired by the art and philosophies of the artists that Wolf highlights in each book. Thanks Barbara! I appreciate the award presentation. I am passing the award to Randall Tipton whose imaginative and creative work I admire greatly: randalldavidtipton.blogspot.com
Close to the former golf course. I had difficulty accurately reproducing the colors from the painting, especially the yellows and grays. The yellows (in the mountain) are much more prominent in the painting and the blues in the foreground are far grayer in the painting. Ah well. (15" x 22")
Armenian cucumbers on steroids. See what happens if one leaves one's garden to its own devices while one is visiting family for a few days.( And I'll have to qualify the title because my grandson's art is attached to the refrigerator in the background.)
