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The
Old Cars & Trucks Gallery includes watercolor paintings
showcasing
the renderings of old vehicles alone and in combination with a
portrait.
These paintings are fun for the car enthusiast, collector
and hobbyist as well as
possibly having promotional applications for various groups
or industries.
I enjoy capturing the personalities of my subjects whether animate or
inanimate. Each vehicle has a style that I try to match to
the style of painting from slick and smooth to coarse and
rusty. The challenge here is more than just painting
the physical likeness of the subject. Relating each subject to its
condition by use of color and technique, I hope sets each
apart.
Since I can only paint what I can see, quality photographs with ample
detail
are imperative and must reflect the personality, look or mood of the
subject as
well. Digital photographs work especially well, as I can
enlarge and zoom
in to capture details that might not be apparent in a smaller snapshot,
though,
these are often usable, especially if accompanied with the negative for
enlargements.
I create my portrait and still life paintings with transparent
watercolor media
using high quality Schminke and Winsor & Newton
watercolors on
d'Arches watercolor papers. The challenge in rendering with
watercolors
is to capture the spontaneity of the medium and yet create a realistic
representation of the subject. This is even more challenging when you
consider
that most mistakes can not be changed, scrubbing the paper surface also
damages
it, creating a dead area, without luminosity. For transparent
watercolors
to read well, the paint lays over the white of the paper allowing light
to
reflect through the paint to the white paper and back, if you damage
the paper
and the paint is absorbed into the paper, this no longer happens and
the
scrubbed area will not blend with the rest of the painting.
So mistakes
in watercolor are opportunities to learn and start over. The
transparency
and luminosity of watercolor is unique and this immediacy sets
it apart
from other painting and drawing mediums.
Most of my watercolor portrait
and still life compositions
are very simple because a realistic representation of the subject is my
main
concern, particularly in the people portraits and the pet portraits as
well as
the old cars and trucks and other still life subjects. I try to create
compelling and interesting compositions that
accentuate and enhance the subject though not particularly complex
compositionally.
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