This is a recent watercolor painting completed on watercolor canvas. Watercolor lifts very easily off of watercolor canvas, going all the way back to the white of the surface unless you have painted with a staining color and even then it goes back to a near white state. This makes it ideal for making corrections, playing with different colors and just being more spontaneous in your creation. With traditional watercolors on paper, most planning for a painting must be done before you actually begin painting because the medium is less forgiving and difficult to correct. With watercolor canvas, you can correct many times, in fact with this painting, I changed the background completely 4 times until I was satisfied with the result. For a watercolor artist this is freedom! But, with all freedom there is a price. The ability to correct is the very reason working on canvas is also a challenge. You can lift areas you did not intend to change and also glazing color on top of color without lifting the under color can be difficult. For this reason, you need to use very soft brushes with a light hand so when you go over the top of existing dried paint you don’t lift it right off the canvas. Fortunately, if you do lift paint by mistake, you can paint it right back in.

“Patience” is of a little girl I saw waiting with her family to get a seat at a restaurant. She and her brothers were the epitome of well-behaved children and she was particularly patient. I loved the way she had her hair up, her dress and just her sweet look in general. As you can see, I eliminated the existing restaurant background and placed her in an outdoor setting instead, making her the complete focus of the painting.

Image Size: 20×16″ on watercolor canvas panel, unframed. Price: $400.00 (plus S&H) Please email me for availability.

A couple of years ago, I took a photo of a little girl playing down at the Waterfront Park in Louisville. I fell in love with the expression on her face and thought she was adorable. Since I have been painting children portraits, I thought I would give her a shot. Before starting, I did a thumbnail sketch, a value study and a color study. I use a laptop computer sitting next to my easel to paint from, since I feel the monitor (and eliminating the printing process) gives more accurate colors and values, plus I can enlarge or zoom into an area that I need to see more clearly. In her hair, I used Raw Umber, Perm Rose, Ultramarine Blue, and Permanent Brown. Skin tones were made with the same colors I use for all skin types and that is Raw Sienna, Ultramarine Blue and Quinacridrone Rose with Quinacridrone Coral. In areas, I used Cobalt Violet, Perinone Orange and Opera for lighting enhancements. The completed painting is on Arches 300lb. cold pressed watercolor paper; I used Daniel Smith and Holbein paints.

Image Size 18×14″    For purchase information, please contact me.

This is Jake, the older brother of Grant. This painting was also completed from a Derby Day photo. Again, I tried to keep the painting loose, with subtle shades of coloring.  Just as in Grant’s painting, I used both greens and purple (green gold, permanent green 1, and dioxazine violet with raw umber and raw sienna as the main color) for shading in the hair with cobalt violet light and cobalt blue for shadows in the face. Because of their light skin tones and hair coloring, these colors had to be very weak, very very light glazes or it would be too harsh.

Image Size: 15×11″   For ordering commissions, check out my “Commissioning a Painting” page.

I happened to take this photo of Grant at his Grandparent’s Derby Party. He was contentedly playing while sitting on his father’s lap. I blocked out the surroundings and increased the lighting on his face. I purposely kept the painting loose while attempting to capture the sweetness of his face. When painting children, skin tones need to remain translucent with subtle variations of color. Because of this, I used a totally transparent palette, with no opaque paints. His eyes were painted with multiple layers of color, again in a loose fashion to give them a watery quality.

This painting is currently on display at the Middletown Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library and will be there until Sept 7th, 2010.

Image Size: 15×11″ Purchase: NFS ~ Please contact me for questions regarding commissioned portraits.

This is a painting from a photo taken when Lauren saw her baby sister, Emily, for the first time. I loved the look of both of the girls, neither face dominating the scene, but equally emphasized. A moment. Thanks to Jason, their father, for sending it to me. The original photo had Emily being held by another person with a rather dark hospital room background. She was wrapped in a typical hospital blanket but none of the stripes were showing. I eliminated the background completely, then used my daughter Sara’s hospital blanket (from 28 years ago!) and wrapped one of her old baby dolls in it to see how I could make the stripes and folds of the blanket work for this painting. The stripes worked well leading the eye up into the focal area of their faces. The darker area behind Lauren’s head is used as a stop to keep the viewer in the painting.

Image Size: 18×14″ If you would like to order a commissioned painting such as this, please email me!

Here is a painting of our latest family addition, Emily Grace Morrison of Atlanta, Georgia. This painting will be going down south to her proud parents, Gina and Jason, and her big sister, Lauren.

Image Size: 11×15″         SOLD                 Collection: Gina and Jason Morrision, Atlanta, GA

This is painted from an old photograph of Chief Joseph, taken by Edward S. Curtis in 1903.   It is a public domain, Library of Congress photograph.   Of course the photo was in black and white so I guessed at the coloring.  Chief Joseph was the leader of the Native American tribe of Nez Perce and, upon surrendering, is remembered for his famous words, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

Image Size: 22×17″     Price:  $500 (plus  S&H, if necessary)      Purchase:  Please email me for availability.