Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i Watercolor Artist

whether the occasion is another year of marriage or the marking of a major historic event, it’s important to celebrate an anniversary. To begin, it’s an opportunity to stop and recognize—with the benefit of hindsight—where you started and how far you’ve come. In this spirit, we’re delighted to mark, with this special edition, the 25th anniversary of Watercolor Artist. So many people have been instrumental in the making of the magazine: the creative team who first imagined it and the talented editors who have worked to fulfill its mission along the way; the innovative art material manufacturers and advertisers; our talented contributing writers and regular columnists; the many gifted artists who’ve appeared in these pages and shared their insights; and, of course, our passionate readers and subscribers. Together, we’ve been…

Watercolor Artist (WA): How has your work changed conceptually over the years? How, if at all, has your painting process changed? Michael Reardon: Twenty-five years ago, I had only been painting in watercolor for a few years. At that time, I was still experimenting with paints, brushes and papers while trying to figure out how to paint in the medium. I was primarily a plein air painter, focusing principally on the faithful depiction of the scene in front of me. As I learned to be more technically consistent, I became less concerned with accuracy and focused more on mood, light and composition. Laurin McCracken: When I began painting 15 years ago, I painted flowers. I used them as a subject that would force me to refine my watercolor technique. They…

1. My day begins at 6:30 a.m. I spend about an hour checking Instagram, Facebook and other social media sites—with coffee in hand, of course. 2. My cruiser is my main mode of transportation during the warmer months. On this day, I packed up my painting kit and rode to the New Jersey shore for a beachfront painting session. “I relish the challenge of painting outdoors, on location. The shifting light and effects of the elements force me to work with an intense focus. ” 3. I enjoy interacting with models. Dakota and I worked together to choose a compelling pose for my watercolor study. 4. I’ve been playing the role of model myself for my friend Jordan Sokol, the director and principal instructor at the Florence Academy of Art…

a recent relocation from Pennsylvania to Minnesota provided Marian Parsons (missmustardseed.com) the perfect opportunity to move her off-site business into her home. A front room serves as her office, and the off-the-kitchen three-season room (outfitted with a mini-split heating/cooling unit) is her creative studio. Parsons—founder and owner of Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint, three-time author, freelance writer and photographer, and HGTV online contributor—is also a fledgling watercolor and oil painter, so the vintage-inspired space gets almost daily use. She curated her light-filled studio with both the pretty and practical in mind, finding gems on Craigslist, Etsy and Ebay, and on her excursions to antique stores and fairs. Organization is key; Parsons set her studio up in zones for storage, watercolor painting, oil painting and inspiration. “I go in there, close…

Sydney, Australia-based artist Liz Steel ( lizsteel.com ) loves capturing her life experiences in her sketchbook. “This quick sketch of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is as much about the fog as it is about the bridge itself,” she says. “When I’m working fast, I like putting paint on the page first, drawing into the wet paint with an ink pen and then splashing some more paint over the top. It’s all about trying to get expressive marks and taking risks.” YOUR TURN! Show us a sketch in which a little risk paid off. @artistsnetwork on Instagram #everywatercolor…

c harles Demuth (1883-1935) was an American modernist painter, best known for his watercolors. Though he was born and resided most of his life in Lancaster, Pa., he traveled widely, studying in Philadelphia and Paris, and vacationing in such places as Bermuda and Provincetown, Mass. On frequent trips to New York and Europe, Demuth was inspired by the work of his avant-garde contemporaries and assimilated some elements of Cubism into Precisionism, a new American style which the artist helped pioneer. Demuth’s watercolors didn’t fit easily into then-popular notions of what was expected of the medium. Much of his painting was considered delicate or foreign in style, but the hard-edged Precisionism of his cityscapes made use of European influences to depict native subjects. The title of the painting, After Sir Christopher…

Where were you when Watercolor Magic splashed onto the scene in 1993? Bill Clinton was in the White House; Jurassic Park and Sleepless in Seattle showed on the big screen; Whitney Houston had the No. 1 song; and Beanie Babies captivated a nation of kids—and collectors. The year also saw the launch of a new magazine dedicated to the art of watercolor. The magazine soon changed its frequency (from quarterly to bimonthly), and later, in 2008, it changed its name to Watercolor Artist, but the mission has remained unaltered: to inspire, inform and instruct artists and to celebrate the very best work being done in watermedia today.…

Fort Worth, Texas-based artist Laurin McCracken (lauringallery.com) combines many of the skills he learned as an architect with his experiences of traveling and studying art history, drawing and photography. He studied at Auburn University and holds a bachelor’s of arts and a bachelor’s of architecture from Rice University, and a master’s in architecture and urban planning from Princeton University. He’s a signature member of more than a dozen watercolor societies, including the American Watercolor Society, National Watercolor Society, Transparent Watercolor Society of America, Southern Watercolor Society, Watercolor West and Watercolor USA Honor Society. He’s an elected member of the Allied Artists of America in its watermedia category. Avid traveler Michael Reardon (mreardon.com), of Oakland, Calif., uses watercolor to record his observations, convey a sense of place and light, and communicate…

Idon’t know what it is about the human form that draws me to it. I’ve been working with it for so long that it has become second nature,” says Debra Edgerton, the Arizona mixed-media artist known for her luminous watercolor portraits. “For me, each person has a story to tell that brings history, culture and time to his or her existence. A simple image can have so much subtext because a person evolves subtly over time.” THE GREATEST CHALLENGE—AND COMFORT Edgerton, whose active involvement in art also has evolved over time, fondly recalls watching her mom draw Sumi birds for her sister and herself when they were young. “My sister, Barbara, was an artist, too, and I tried to mimic the things she did,” Edgerton says. “I’d also draw faces…

John James Audubon (AMERICAN, 1785–1851) Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis), Study for Havell pl. 26 (ca. 1825; watercolor, graphite, pastel, gouache and black ink with scraping and selective glazing on paper, laid on card, 29¾x21¼) Selected by Roberta J.M. Olson, Ph.D., Curator of Drawings, The New-York Historical Society Seven vivid birds perch with outstretched wings, bobbing heads and chattering beaks. The only parrot species native to the United States, the Carolina parakeet became extinct less than 100 years after John James Audubon portrayed it. Roberta J.M. Olson, Curator of Drawings at The New-York Historical Society, says, “Audubon’s brilliant depiction best preserves the vivacity of the species.” Audubon made this dynamic watercolor for The Birds of America, a book that revolutionized ornithological illustration. No one before him had portrayed birds at life-size,…

Step 1 I always begin by wetting down the paper to remove sizing and then let it dry completely. I block out the warms and cools in my composition, which serve as my underpainting. I’m using burnt umber, raw umber and ultramarine blue for the background and fabric, and cadmium red light, cadmium yellow light, alizarin crimson, and a touch of ultramarine blue for the fleshtones. Step 2 I build the intensity of value and color from this point. When possible, I like to build everything at the same time so I get a sense of what’s working. Step 3 There’s a point when I can tell if the values are successful. I’m always looking at the total composition and how things are balanced. Although it’s a slow build, I…