New work in progress for an upcoming gallery show in December. Imaginative Landscape and Trees - 5x7 inches, oil on panel.

Master study of Richard Parkes Bonington's 'On the Coast of Picardy'. This is a smaller painting, originally painted in oils - 1826. In my gouache and watercolor version, I'm reminded of how valuable it is to now and then make a quick copy from artist that you are inspired by. Learning new things is always productive and should not let up after art school, in my opinion. Speaking of this, I want to thank the people who have signed up for my upcoming workshop that will be on October 20-21, at Fort Mason, SF. There is still room available! I'm very much looking forward to teaching again and will also share for a few hours some traditional medium approaches with digital painting.

Oak tree trunk study with the season's first reddish poison oak leaves appearing. Watercolor on hot pressed sheet paper. Pencil, carbon pencil, light washes, brush pen and pen. 8" x 10". Preparing field studies for studio oil paintings. As you can probably guess trees are my theme. As a reminder, I'm teaching in San Francisco this fall - Gouache & Watercolor workshop - don't miss out!

Coastal Fog - It must be August!

Sketching near the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco today - super foggy! Red nasturtiums growing near the base of a cypress tree partially covered in ivy. Watercolor with small additions of gouache white mixed with transparent watercolor washes. 9x12" Arches cold press paper.

Wash drawing of gnarled California Bay Laurel tree trunks with young off shoots. Sketched in the woods on a portable small wooden easel. This is handy as you can place various sketchbooks on the 'table' portion and adjust to any angle for washes, etc. Fabriano Classic Artist's Journal paper, 6"x 8". Faber -Castell dark sepia fine pen and brush. Various watercolor tints; sepia, neutral tint, prussian blue, burnt sienna and yellow orchre. Caran d'ache watercolor pencils and Pentel's tradio pen. In my upcoming fall Gouache & Watercolor workshop, I will go over mixed media tools, such as these too!

Fall Workshop - October 20-21, 2012 - SF

Greetings everyone and happy summer- There will be a new Gouache & Watercolor painting workshop this fall - October 20-21, 2012 at Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA. Besides covering essentials of these wonderful mediums, I will also be covering a digital workflow, using your scanned or photographed sketches/paintings and how to take them further with digital painting using Photoshop and Painter software. For those who attended the June workshop this year, this could be thought of as part two! No worries if you missed the earlier one or haven't used these mediums, I will cover the basic foundations again as well as new ground and also focus on individual requests; so you get the most out of the weekend workshop. Sign Up Here! Above is a recent gouache and watercolor painting - 5x7" on hot press Fabriano block paper. An invented oak tree view with a hint of the dry California summer hills in the distance.

Traveling on the east coast recently, I enjoyed the shores of Connecticut and trips to the British art museum at Yale, researching original watercolor and gouache paintings. In addition kayaking in southern Maine, Berkshires in Massachusetts and New York's Hudson river artist oasis at Olana, the home of Fredrick Church. The views from the home's windows were composed by the painter as the large creative 'castle' took shape. I highly recommend the journey to this scenic estate. Beach scene with umbrellas - study from a small pocket sketchbook. 2.5" x 4" - gouache and watercolor.

Seeking a break from our mini heat wave over the weekend, I sketched a cluster of cypress trees near the Lands End area of San Francisco. The seal rock in the distance of my sketch was also painted by Albert Bierdstadt (1830-1902) from various view points. An excellent place to enjoy the cool breeze which today is completely covered in fog. On the workshop front I'm getting ready to offer several new classes this fall... stay tuned!

Workshop 2012

I just wanted to thank everyone who attended the Gouache & Watercolor workshop over the weekend. What a fantastic gathering of talented artists! It was a pleasure to teach in San Francisco and I welcome others to join future workshops. I used a high resolution projector to display a few demos as seen in the stills here as well as spontaneous brush doodles and color theory samples I taped up on the wall. There was also a comprehensive survey of watercolor and gouache art to inspire and adventures outside on our sketching 'field trip'. Stay tuned for future workshops, which could include figure/head painting themes and combining traditional mediums with digital painting. This can be very helpful in your workflow for concept art; avoiding the increasingly robotic look of 'photo-real' cg renderings that takes the individual artist out of the mix.

Trying out rough watercolor paper (300lbs) weight. Experiment in vague atmospheric washes with repeated blotting and reworking. 9x12" As a note; 4-5 spots left for my Gouache & Watercolor workshop (June 2-3, 2012 - San Francisco, CA). Beginners are always welcomed!

Combining a family hike/picnic on mother's day with art - Watercolor sketch of a nearby lake with a fresh breeze and hills partially covered in cloud shadows. 6"x12"

Miniature oil painting (4x4 inches) of Angel Island - San Francisco Bay Area. This is a recent piece created for my daughter's school art auction. The texture of the canvas was pretty pronounced at that size, so it was an interesting challenge. Painting on location, with windy conditions. Also, a big thanks to everyone who has signed up for the June workshop!

Visiting the Muir Woods National Park last weekend, I did a quick detail view of a burled redwood tree trunk in watercolors and brown marker, on cream colored Fabriano journal paper. I learned that a redwood forest contains more biomass per square foot than any other area on earth, including the Amazon forest! On the workshop front (less than a month away), the class has just 9 spots left to max out at 30 folks. If you want to join in, now is the time. Gouache & Watercolor Workshop

Gouache & Watercolor Workshop - Update

The image above is part of a short demo video I will posting soon. ("Carving out shapes with white gouache.") Workshop Update: I just wanted to let all of you know my workshop is filling up fast! If you are considering coming out to Fort Mason in June to paint in gouache and watercolor, now is the time to sign up! Thank you to everyone who is on board. Some of you are coming all the way from New York, New Orleans, Colorado and many from the Bay Area. Can't wait to teach and share more of what I've learned over the years. More info here.

Sunset in rural flooded pasture with eucalyptus trees. Digital lighting/compositional study.

Workshop - June 2012

More Info Here!

I'm excited to announce a new Gouache & Watercolor workshop coming up June 2-3, 2012. This will be held at the beautiful Ft.Mason Center in San Francisco, CA. A large, comfortable teaching space with tall ceilings will provide an inspiring place to learn and practice various techniques and concepts. You'll also enjoy demos and slide shows of my artwork and great examples from history. There will be plenty time for sketching outside by the bay and you'll elaborate on those sketches by creating paintings back in the class. I will provide lots of feedback and guidance as well. Beginners are most welcome.

Sign up soon on my website. This will be a memorable learning experience!

Digital gouache painting from memory. A recent hike down to the ocean inspired this piece. It was amazing to see a coyote, salamander, rabbit and hawks all in one morning.

Atmospheric landscape with trees in morning haze. Sepia ink, watercolor browns and blues with additions of gouache delft blue. Bamboo reed pen, steel dip pen, pastel pencil, pencil and washes of muted warm white gouache. 7x9 inches on watercolor paper from a notebook.

I'm thinking about Paulus Bril and Momper with themes by Claude Gellée here. This could be a placid Italian river setting, or easily evolve into a 1500's mountainous landscapes from a traveling experience. Nothing like the Northerners awakening from their Gothic past... “Do you know the land where the lemon-trees flower?” (Goethe). These days reading quite a lot about the draw of Rome on the Dutch, Flemish, French and German artists around the 1600's.

I just wanted to thank the folks over at Pratique Des Arts magazine in France for showcasing one of my tree sketches. The theme of the short article was called La poesie des arbres, poetry of trees in english. Some other excellent tree focused artists from France, USA and the Netherlands were in the recent issue number 101 as well.

In addition there was an article in ImagineFX (Dec.2011) highlighting the successful efforts for the SketchTravel book project and auction late last year and the artists involved with making that happen. One of the images showed a digital composition warm up for a gouache windmill piece I did next to the final gouache.

Rapid sketch of pine trees near the Legion of Honor museum, San Francisco, Ca.
6"x9" on Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper -warm gray. Marker, Pitt Pen, white pencil and water-soluble black pencil.