Current painting activity

I'm ashamed to admit it but, this summer my art production record was dismal. For unexplainable reasons, it was either "I don't feel like painting today" or I would start something and quickly decide it was junk! This is not a good situation when you are trying to supply new work to three galleries! In an attempt to break the slump, I took a one week watercolor painting course from Ohio watercolorist David Rankin (a fellow Artists for Conservation member). Lo and behold, it seems to have worked.

One of my problems was the tendency to keep deciding that I'd do better painting with acrylics. No glass, easier to correct errors, less preplanning, etc. But, as I have proven to my self over and over, I just plain prefer transparent watercolor. In fact, I am irrevocably hooked on the magic of watercolor. Anyway, enough about my artist's blocks (any of you who are artists know all about them I'm sure!!)

So where am I now? Well, I have finished one small landscape (shown here)


                                                                                Aspen on Talus Slope ( 10" x 7")

Having been a bird painter most of painting life, I am struggling with landscapes, as you can probably see. Time will tell whether I ever succeed with landscapes.

My current effort is on a painting of a Dusky Grouse (previously called Blue Grouse) sitting in a fir tree. This setting is from an photo I took this fall in Grand Teton National Park. Here's what the layout drawing looks like:
 


This is the final drawing on tracing paper that I transferred to a piece of Arches 300 lb watercolor paper. I am in the process of painting it now and will show you the results in the next post.