August has been busy – Retrospective Exhibit

A few weeks ago I heard that a Featured Artist area at our local collaborative Gallery 113 had suddenly become available for the month of August, due to a cancellation.

I quickly signed up and pulled together "A Retrospect of Figurative Watercolors on Paper." consisting of eight paintings from my own collection. They show examples of my work from the period of 1998 to 2001.

Today I mostly paint figurative artwork in oil on canvas. But earlier I created a large body of watercolor paintings on paper. This Retrospective shows selected early works reflecting examples of my evolving interest in the activities of people: the basis of my recent work.

Some works were painted “en plein air,” and finished up in the studio. Others are early examples of my current technique of painting from multiple photographs.

Also, at that time, I was beginning experiments with my palette to find a few light-fast pigments from which to mix my colors. These investigations lead to the limited palette of my recent and current work with its colorful backgrounds and bold painterly details.

In some of these early paintings I began to introduced opaque gouache, the beginnings of my next period where I produced many paintings of gouache on board.

Above: "Feeding The Ducks," Watercolor and gouache on paper. 8-1/4 x 13 inches. June 2001. Painted en plein-air at Los Carneros Lake, Goleta, California.