Eight Odd Size Rust Abstracts

I had some bits and pieces of paper cuttings from old paintings and used them for a quick series of 'rust' paintings. The main colour used in the background is iron oxide red/brown, which is quite literally rust. I mixed in another earth colour called umber, and then overlaid with quinacridone purple, and bismuth yellow. The subsequent paintings include indo blue or quinacridone rose. These are very odd sizes! When I get through the odd sizes I plan to go back to more standard sizes.

 Rust Abstract #1, cold press 1 1/4 x 7" watercolour, December 2020

 

 Rust Abstract #2, cold press 2 x 4.5" watercolour, December 2020

 

 

  Rust Abstract #3, cold press 1 x 8 1/4" watercolour, December 2020

 

 

 Rust Abstract #4, cold press 2 1/2 x 4 3/4" watercolour, December 2020

 

 Rust Abstract #5, cold press 2 x 4 3/4" watercolour, December 2020

 

 Rust Abstract #6, cold press 2 x 3 1/2" watercolour, December 2020

 

  Rust Abstract #7, cold press 1 x 7" watercolour, December 2020

 

  Rust Abstract #8, cold press 1 x 7" watercolour, December 2020

World Inspired Landscapes: Barbados

 For the first time in the series I painted a country that I have visited and painted in the past. After a few tropical beach-style paintings of Bahamas and Bahrain, I wanted to try a different kind of composition and use my own memories of the trip. Of course, I completed dozens of paintings on the Barbados trip, but my very first view of the island was from the airplane as it tilted to the left and began to descend through the clouds. A small emerald island became visible from the sprawling ocean, and I wondered if it would even be big enough for a jumbo jet to land on. Sure enough, there was a never-ending stream of jumbo jets landing and taking off from Barbados. The main feature of the island was a ring of beaches, and a single highway that went along the coast. This small painting is my memory of looking through the clouds out the window of the airplane back in 2002, and seeing Barbados for the first time. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Barbados 3 x 4 1/4" watercolour, cold press, December 2020

 

 

 

Palette Cleanser #45

 

After a big year of blogging I have hit 900 blogs all time! Thanks mom for keeping a record of them all, I kept you busy this year. That means I did 400 blogs so far in 2020 which was an exceptional year for all the wrong reasons- the pandemic caused all of us to stay inside and stop doing social things and traveling too far from home. Even now in December Canada is having a lot of new cases, but there are new vaccines on the horizon so hopefully things can gradually return to normal. The painting here is another one in the 'palette cleanser' series where I scrub clean the paint blobs and use the excess to make these paintings on a decent watercolour paper. I was inspired by marbles in this one, and used a new colour scheme that I was playing around with recently. 

Palette Cleanser #45, 9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, December 2020

Three Studies of my Aquarium Fish

 Guppies are fairly easy to take care of they are live bearing and live in fresh water. I have had trouble with them from time to time- they like to have parties when I am not there and trash the place! Years ago I made a painting called 'Where go the Fish?' which I sold to a professor, it showed my aquarium empty in the corner with the fish swimming around the apartment. These three small studies were done of some of the fish I have, the top and bottom show the fancy tailed guppies, the middle is the giant plecko algae eater, which is about 10 inches long. I also have loaches but the hide most of the time. The guppies were moving around a lot which made it hard to paint them accurately, I will have to practice a bit more! 

Leopard Guppy 2 x 5" cold press watercolour, December 2020

"Big Fish" Plecko 2.5 x 6" cold press watercolour, December 2020

Five Guppies 3 x 4" cold press watercolour, December 2020

World Inspired Landscapes: Bahrain

 

World Inspired Landscapes: Bahrain i, 5 x 5" cold press watercolour, December 2020

Historically Bahrain was known as an island oasis in the middle east. Abundant fresh water aquifers gave life to an otherwise arid and barren land. Its proximity to other countries in the middle east also made it a powerful trading hub, and the center of many conflicts over time. I read about this in a book from the cultural center which explained the history, culture, and landscape of Bahrain. I also looked at google map view. They have built many artificial islands and reclaimed land from the sea to support a growing number of people and condominiums, which you see on the right island. On the left I showed the tree of life, a famous landmark that inspired awe in many travelers, it was a giant tree in the midst of a desert. But the most important element of the design is the water, which is featured in a heart-shaped inlet shimmering in a variety of turquoise. 

 

World Inspired Landscapes: Bahrain ii, 2 x 3.5" cold press watercolour, December 2020

I liked the ideas in the first version of this painting but it felt a little too much like the Bahamas painting, and it didn't quite capture the night life aspect of Bahrain which is normally a touristy place in the middle east.  In this version I changed the angle on the bay of water and made it even more heart shaped. I also changed the time of day to dusk, giving things a bit more mystery. The tree of life is still in the upper left, and I added four coloured kayak/canoe style boats to emphasize the recreation aspect.

Self Appraisal, Red Gold Green Colour Scheme

Self Appraisal, 4 x 6" cold press watercolour, November 2020

 After exploring a new colour scheme with the three colour quilts, I used the colour scheme in this small abstract painting. I have been watching a lot of the History channel's show called 'Pawn Stars' where they buy and sell old stuff including paintings. They often bring in appraisers for art, and it is neat to see how much art is worth on the market. This painting is called self-appraisal because the artwork is appraising itself! What is it worth? At least twenty thousand dollars it thinks.

 

 Here is an even smaller painting using a similar colour scheme although the yellow and brown aren't included. I am using cuttings from other paintings to do these. My next plan is to paint my aquarium fish, then work on two other projects called 'Saturation Costs' and 'Flamingos Galore'.

Red Gold Green Colour Scheme 1 1/4 x 6" cold press watercolour, November 2020

Three Colour Quilts

Colour Quilt 1 Yellow Signature, 4 x 6" cold press watercolour, November 2020

I had this idea for a new colour scheme involving a mix of earth and synthetic paints. The top bar is goethite (PBr7), the second from top is mostly phthalo green  (PG36, PG7), the bottom left is mostly ferrari red (PR254), bottom middle raw umber (PBr7), and bottom right benzi and bismuth yellow (PY154, PY184). It has the red/green complement, the secondary green and orange, and the value contrast between dark brown and light yellow.

 

Colour Quilt 2 Green Signature, 4 x 6" cold press watercolour, November 2020

Above, is a second version almost the same except I used raw sienna (PBr7) on the top to avoid the granulation from goethite. I also added a touch of carbon black to the raw umber to make it more neutral. 

Colour Quilt 2 Red Signature, 4 x 6" cold press watercolour, November 2020

Above, is a third version almost the same as the second version except I omitted the carbon black, and tried to make the sections more equal. I would like to try a larger version and attempt to make it perfect, so the paint brush strokes are not visible, which is hard to do with watercolour.