One Man (and One Woman) Show

The nice folks at Pavé Fine Jewelry in downtown Bend (on the corner of Bond and Minnesota), have graciously invited my wife Gabrielle Taylor and I to display some of our work and be on hand for the October First Friday Art Walk!  She and I thought it might be fun to do a show together.  Gabrielle is a jewelry artist creating beautiful work in silver metal clay and quality gemstones, whose work has been represented by Pavé for some time.  Having never shown my watercolors before, I thought this would be a great opportunity to give it a try!  Please stop in and say hi during the First Friday event, Oct. 7, or throughout the rest of the month and take a look at our art!

The Golden Bicycle

 

La Bicyclette d'Or, 14 1/2" x 17 1/2"

This was a scene from the farmhouse where we stayed near Mouleydier, in the Dordogne region in France. I thought it was a rather quintessentially European country image with the bicycle, flowers and rustic building. I also enjoyed the concentration of golden hues and felt that it had a warm, summery feel to it. One of the great things about painting from my travel photos is that I get to re-experience the ambience of those wonderful places!

Lake Tahoe, again

 

Tahoe Shore 2, 14 3/4" x 11 1/4"

Lake Tahoe is such a picturesque area with the beautiful blue water and granite boulders, and is  always an inspiration. This was sort of a quickie, once again trying to keep it fast and loose, without getting too wrapped up in details and the end result. I find that it's often refreshing and helpful for me to simply make a point of that right from the start, and it's something I should probably practice more often.

California Coastline

Big Sur, 14 3/4" x 11 1/4"

A couple of years ago, my wife and I took a nice road trip, part of which was driving up Hwy. 1 along the California coast. I hadn't been on it for quite some time, but it's still beautiful and certainly quintessential California! One of the loveliest stretches is through the Big Sur area. Here, I tried to capture some of that beauty and also make my first attempt at painting the ocean. I messed up the sky on this initially, but actually managed to save it, and then went on to do exactly the same thing while painting the water! One of the things I have learned with watercolor is to give it another try if you think you've screwed something up - it often works and besides, if you already think it's ruined you've got nothing to loose!

Place de Vosges

Place de Vosges, 10 1/4" x 14 1/4"

Paris is filled with beautiful parks, and this one was right across the street from where we were staying. With their wonderful water fountains and manicured gardens, they are very popular and frequented daily by locals and tourists alike. This was a small painting I tried to do quickly and loosely, and to convey a stroll through the park on a warm summer day. One of my goals in watercolor is trying to give the impression/suggestion of the image without fussing the details; giving the viewer the opportunity to "complete" the scene with their imagination. Including people in my paintings is also something I'm working on, and once again, without being too detailed about it!

Parisian Elegance

 

Pigalle Balcony 21 1/2" x 14"

Wandering through Paris, it's impossible not to be enthralled with it's beauty, and certainly the architecture is at the forefront. Every avenue seems to be lined with elegant buildings displaying elaborate architectural details, from sculptural stone work to decorative wrought iron. This was actually a fairly typical large multi-story building with numerous windows and balconies, and altogether striking. One of the more difficult things for me, when faced with an abundance of rich imagery like that, is in defining a focal point and distilling it down to the essence of what I want to say. So I reduced it to this view of a single balcony enhanced by the summer flowers, which really 'explained' my interest in the whole building. Interestingly, the street level of the building was unoccupied store fronts covered in graffiti, which were a marked contrast to the classical details of the apartments above. Although there was probably a painting involving that juxtaposition as well, I preferred this instead!

More French Scenery

 

River View, Mouleydier 21 1/2" x 14"

Another painting of France, in fact it's the same building as in the previous post viewed from across the river. I found this scene inspiring, not only in it's architectural beauty, but also from a compositional point of view. The diagonal zig-zag of the of the rampart, treetops and clouds along with the vertical elements of the stairs, the evergreens and buildings created an interesting dynamic. I also enjoyed the shadows and dappled sunlight coming through the trees on a summer afternoon. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to deal with the lacy foliage of the trees against the darks or the masonary of the walls when I began, but apparently that seems to be standard operating procedure - just dive in and figure it out!