Okay, here's the deal-I just like to play with the shapes and colours and intensities (values). When the shapes become semi-abstractions the fun begins! This car is the same as the one two posts ago. I am bored to tears painting landscapes or portraits as everybody else would be bored painting "old stuff". But there are a number of people who paint this subject matter-so I am not the only silly person. Oh wait a minute I forgot to mention Michele's article see below for link. Bink to blow up for better viewing pleasure.
26 comments:
Nice! Great reflections and dark values.
Thanks, Michelle, what I have always liked about watercolours is that you can play and experiment and paint so many different ways. You can do'em pale, you can do'em dark- do'em any old way you want! Just do'em..do'em..Oh, sorry sometimes I get swept away in the moment.
Michelle, me again, I would like to know something. In Canada, there is a trend away from glass-covered water-media. I don't deal with galleries much anymore, but I know they generally want oils. There are so many magazines devoted to W/C, there are societies all over the planet and thousands of books on the subject. I don't see many good watercolourists loose in the blogosphere. I am partial to W/C but are we fighting a loosing battle?
You might be fighting a losing battle. After 50 yrs of trying and a miriad of remarkable, fantastic watercolorists have not been able to pound the door down, what do you think? The money train leads to the little oil leak under the door, where people can feel assured they get their money's worth and have made a "good investment which will appreciate over time". hmmmmm funny thing I heard that same quote apply to the stock market. We went from stocks to real estate now check out the foreclosure numbers in california and minnesota. remarkable.
Yes,but I meet a lot of people who are very impressed with watercolours, the mystique of watercolour is alive and well. Its not all doom and gloom just because California big money isn't interested.
that's not at all what I mean. I was making a pun at art dealers who sell their quick medicine in a bottle, guaranteeing a return on people's investments. In the BIG picture, as in world wide economics, the US real estate market and particularly lenders, are in mucho trouble. I was referring to the beginning downturn of over inflated property investments and easy-turn lenders who are now going belly-up. Calif & Minnesota have begun the huge foreclusure avalanche which will bury tiny people, especially artists, when this trend is done. Right about then, who will care if it's an oil or a wc. Nobody will have a penny to buy anything. I'm not being negative, I love watercolor. I also love oils. I just think there may be no need for discussion if this train goes the way it seems to be going. I am also not a pessimist, just a realist.
Oh.
Ron,
Love the coup! Great work as always.
A plague on anyone who buys art as an investment!!!!
By the way, did Michele write an article? Ha!
Cara, I woke up on the wrong side of the world today & btw loved what you said about your various & sundry husbands....ha ha we should talk. Seriously, loved the comment about Georgia O'Keefe, one of my favorite people in the entire universe.
Ron, I love the way you applied dark color and adding slice of the red that makes this piece even more colorful one.
Thanks, Kee,for noticing the details, I appreciate it.
Hello Cara,
Sorry I'm out of order (as usual). Thanks. It always horrifies me (hyperbole for effect) that people buy art for any other reason than that they love it. I'm lucky that way because being nobody in particular and painting in a dead medium if people buy my stuff they really gotta luv it! Okay, everybody lets all laff together-take some weight off, things are getting a little heavy.
Milford says how about painting a dead medium? You wouldn't have to worry about her/him moving. Thats ghastly, shut up Milford.
I'm the only person who thinks I'm funny aren't I? I knew it.
Hey Ron,
You're right, watercolor is such a versatile medium. And, in my humble opinion, so much harder to master than the opaque paints which allow for correction of mistakes. You screw up a WC painting and usually it goes in the circular file.
I'm not sure about the trend away from glass covered media here in the US. But then again, I don't follow what the trends are. I do what I like to do rather than what will sell, hence all the paintings of my dogs. :-)
Maybe if someone is really striving to have their work hung in a gallery, being a WC artist would make things a bit harder. To me, it seems like WC has gained popularity rather than lost it. Like you said there are tons of WC magazines and societies out there. Maybe it's the galleries (and the uninformed art buyers who buy paintings as an investment) that are behind the times. ?
Watercolors used to be used solely as a quick medium to help oil painters sketch out a painting before putting it to canvas. That's WAY before our time.
Look at that long post. Sorry to be a blog-hog.
Thanks for the reply, long comments are good, there's lots of space- wonder how many comments you could get on this thing. We should have a "Commentathon". Watercolours were considered a "junior medium" but I had hoped things wouldn't revert to that...Long Live Watercolours-Watercolours Forever, Up with Watercolours...sorry sometimes I just get carried away with emotion (wipes tear from eye, then exits stage left).
Hey ron.. time for me to pile on.. Watercooler.. a new drink refreshing with a dash of titanium and a twist -- ur ready to roll. You did some extra grass work on this.. I like the lavender counterpoints - works well with the yellows and greens. Coupes are sitting pretty and a good balance of the shapes. A shapely solid piece .. Jackson!
Junior Medium? Please!
I've tried my hand at watercolor and made a terrible mess of it. It takes so much skill to think it out and place your colors knowing that if there is a mistake you can't cover it with more paint or a coat of gesso.
Good work is good work and crap is crap regardless of the medium.
By the way - please tell Milford that I once tried to paint a dead medium but found that my underpainting kept coming through from the other side -
Commentathon! Good idea. That made me laugh. You are funny, Ron.
Maybe we could compare watercolor paintings to Independent films or music. They have to be very good to get noticed against the over-saturated mainstream. They may not be for everyone, but those who have a better understanding of the skill needed to master such a difficult medium would be the one's who appreciate a piece for what it IS, rather than what it may, one day, be worth.
Maybe I'm just full of caca.
Art is in the eye of the beholder.
Now this, my merry gang of commenters, is good stuff!
Watercoolers- a dash of titanium with a twist, guarranteed to whiten your teeth on the way down. Thanks, W.K.!
Cara, very clever! Watercolourists have an interesting combination of an inferiority/superiority complex. Sigmund...are you there?
Very well put, Michelle! I'm glad I asked because this has been a very interesting response.
If I'm still allowed in this commentathon I'd like to say da....I'd like to say this is the longest post I've ever read, or been in. Anyway, I do think there is a trend towards mounting watercolors to board like ampersand board, and spraying fixative. Is that how they do it. I know Ampersand has a video out now about how to do it. jeez it's only $45. Dangit, when's my book coming out? I'm sure it will be half that. Have you tried this method Ron? Do they use a spray fixative (sacre-blue)
Just this week I was in an art show - 68 entries - (got honorable mention for the ONLY oil piece that got anything). Thanks.
Winners were 2 acrylics, 3 watercolors, 1 P&I(waterbased ink at that). Seems like the H2O bunch cleaned up - pun, hehehe.
Around here it's becoming somewhat acceptable for watercolor on canvas (Fredrix wc canvas). Plus fixative, of course.
We'll just have to see what sells during this show (open through the end of April).
Hi, Michele, I don't use anything other than paint and paper with exception of paint additives like gum arabic,isopropyl, STP...
Congrats, B.J.-watercolour alive and well in Georgia, good to know!
bj, being such the superb oil painter that you are, how interesting that you appreciate watercolor too. That's something that you don't see too often. Perhaps things are changing and watercolor is becoming more accepted in the old school. I think and exceptional watercolor always stands out as just that, exceptional.
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