6:20 PM: so now that i’ve showered and had my beer & dinner, what i notice when i glance at watercolor 47 are the grindlepiks. i just now made up that word, and what it refers to are the marks, like the orange/siena one center-left. you can’t plan or make them happen; they happen. if you try or plan, you get crap. crap!
grindlepiks are spontaneous signature marks that strongly remind us of animal/plant forms. but they’re not. but they are. what if there were an entire watercolor filled with grindlepiks? would that kind of look like a contemporary gorky? or is it best to allow them to be born within the context of one of these abstracted creek-scapes? probably the latter. because, see, i don’t really care about making abstract paintings! i care about reflecting my love for the creek by focusing my many decades of mark making on the grackflim of the snowmelt rushing over the grey and orange rocks. so why the invented words. ordinary, known words carry known meanings. they trigger memories of sometimes irrelevant meanings. they connote events, places that may be unimportant, even conflicting. grackflim, a made up word, is splash in the middle of your online experience of watercolor 47.
4:28 PM: here’s what happens when we don’t take our afternoon trail walk; i just keep going and going and…i got rid of that damned rock altogether! i think it improved the composition vastly. there are some areas of the watercolor that were being overshadowed by that rock, which i didn’t really like from the very start. i’m looking at it right now here in the entryway to our house, where new watercolors usually get to be seen by us both. mikela reacted positively, but of course she doesn’t know the history.
on other fronts, we have a rabbit coming to visit every morning and afternoon, so mikela put out some carrots & greens for him/her a few minutes ago. i just glanced out there and they’re already gone!
3:47 PM: i made a few adjustments to that rock on the upper right.
watercolor 74 13 x 20”
2:36 PM: i worked on watercolor 74 most of the day.
i can’t yet decide whether or not the rock on the upper right has too much information. i’ll keep glancing, which is really the best way for me to determine that, other than bringing it over to the house & looking at it in a different environment.
11:45 am: the east facing wall of my studio, above, contains a selection of my 2020 watercolors series. as artist shara hughs said, “who doesn’t like the landscape?” my watercolor landscapes; in this case creek-scapes, are inspired by years of plein air paintings both in oil and gouache, at one of our local creeks.
BELOW are two examples: on the left, a 2018 plein air gouache on paper, 9x12” and on the right, a 2012 plein air painting in oil on linen, 16x16”
each shows an emotionally charged, painterly stylization of forms that transcends the portrayal of a literal landscape, while allowing the viewer to be aware that these are interpretations of a specific landscape. the same can be said of this watercolor series. shortly, i’ll embark on the 74th in the series. increasingly, i’m feeling the desire to go back out into the landscape and make more plein air paintings. the question is: will my tendonitis afflicted right shoulder allow that to happen?
in the mean time, stay tuned for todays watercolor update.
