2019 NWS Show

Hi everyone! I have not posted for a few months mainly due to other projects that I had been involved with. But what I did last weekend was to work with the Board of Directors for the National Watercolor Society. I am currently shadowing the VP of Awards as I will be taking on that roll next year. Here are some videos from the various events going on in San Pedro, California where the gallery for NWS is located. Enjoy!

New Studio

Here is my new art studio!  This has been my summer project to finally re-vamp and re-organize the studio. Things were getting out of hand and the clutter was starting to get to me. It was time to do something. Here is the final result and I am very happy with the results.  The colors are pleasing to me and I feel inspired.

Received 2nd Place of Best in Show

The Anton Art Center located in downtown Mt. Clemens, MI recently held an exhibit of local art teachers highlighting their work. Now that I am conducting watercolor workshops at the center along with teaching digital arts at a local community college qualifies me to be a part of the exhibit. I entered my painting: "Sentinels". I received 2nd place in the show! The painting was inspired by a trip to Florence, Italy. In Piazza Della Signoria, stands this statue of this lion. Carved into the pillars along with the statue are more weathered sculptures of lions. To me, they looked like they are guarding the Piazza, hence the title of Sentinels.

"Paris Graffiti" Chosen For Travel Show in Michigan

I attended the Michigan Watercolor Society Show this past weekend which was held in Bay City, Michigan this year. My painting "Paris Graffiti" was picked for the traveling exhibit at various galleries around Michigan. 

My New Profile Picture

What do you think of this watercolor? Is it a watercolor? Not really. So what am I talking about? This is a watercolor effect generated with Adobe Photoshop! Should I be worried that technology is taking over real painting? NO. NOT AT ALL!

Nothing will replace sitting down with paint and brushes and creating with your own hand and mind.

Watercolor Wednesday's-My Beginning Watercolor Class of 2019!

Here is my beginning watercolor class. They passed with flying (watercolor) colors. I had them do a tropical sunset scene. They were taught how to do a sunset with 3-color gradient wash. For their first time, I thought it came out well. The classes are held at the Anton Art Center in downtown Mt. Clemens, Michigan.

Paris Graffiti Accepted into Michigan Watercolor Society Show 2019

My painting "Paris Graffiti" will be part of the 2019 MWS Exhibition in Bay City, Michigan. I did this painting from a trip to Paris and went down a Rue that had this wall of plastered posters and graffiti which I thought was very interesting. to add to the theme, I put a hint of someone stopping to observe the scene. I will keep you posted of any other further developments with the show.

Fabriano USA

I have received this information from Laurin McCracken regarding the show coming up in a couple of months in Fabriano, Italy......

Fabriano USA 2019 Artists,

Ken and Frank are reporting that all of your paintings are on the way to Fabriano. Bravo!

I have attached a PDF with all of the USA paintings on 4 pages. After you have a moment to look it over, I think you will agree that the USA is well represented with this body of work. I congratulate you for sending excellent examples of what the USA watercolor community can create. 

I am confident that, once again, the USA exhibition will be considered "Best of Show." I know for sure that the artists that will be attending Fabriano in Acquarello will make the USA exhibition a "must see" stop in Fabriano.

Keep you fingers crossed that our paintings sail smoothly through the bureaucracy between here and there.

Be proud of your contribution to this important exhibition. Share this document with others.

All the best,

Laurin

Here are the paintings representing team USA.

Final Koi Painting

This is the finished painting. All I did at this level was to blend the dark area on the bottom left a little more to my liking. You just have to know when to quit. Sometimes, I purposely put a painting away for a month or two and bring it out to look at it with fresh eyes. So now my blog followers can see how it was done step-by-step.

Stage 5 Koi Painting

Now you can see, I have developed the reflections in the foreground and put in a darker shadow.

At this stage, it is 99% complete. I still need to look on it for awhile and see what bothers me and to look at it with a critical eye.

Stage 4 Koi Painting

Now you can see how it is developing. I have laid in the dark areas of the pond and removed the masking. The reflections in the pool in the background are worked out and now I will be putting my attention on the reflections in the foreground.

Koi Painting Stage 3

Here we are at stage 3. I have rendered more of the Koi and I have put in darker washes in the upper right corner. I did this to establish how dark I wanted it to go and adjusted the other greenish blueish color in the water in the upper part of the painting. That area is still masked off while I apply the washes.

Koi Painting Stage 2

This is stage two in the development of my painting of Koi. As you can see, I put in more washes of the water and developed the color of the central koi in the painting.

Koi Painting

I started this painting of Koi fish in a pond and decided to document the progression of how I developed the painting. This is stage 1. I put in basic washes and applied masking to areas that I want to keep white.

Macaron Poster

A friend of mine who makes french macarons wanted me to design a poster for her. I illustrated the macarons in watercolor, took a digital image of the painting and brought it into Photoshop. On my watercolor blog, of course I mostly discuss and show my activity in the world of watercolor but I also teach advanced photoshop at a local community college. I combined these skills to create this poster for her. It is good to combine the latest technology with direct painting and drawing skills. This is the result. The above image shows the design and the one on top is the actual print out.

Watercolor Workshop

Here I am teaching my first watercolor workshop! It was a success. Students enjoyed it and I did too. I was happy to share my knowledge of the medium of watercolor and hope to teach many more in the new year. This workshop was held at the Anton Art Center in downtown Mt. Clemens.

Scenes from the 98th International Open Exhibition for the National Watercolor Society.

For those of you who did not attend or were not able to, I will share with all of you the experience of spending a long weekend in San Pedro, California. Enjoy!

And here is a scene of the marina in San Pedro and my painting "Soft Landing" in the show. I achieved my signature status this year.

"Soft Landing" is in "The Art of Watercolour" Magazine

Here is the layout on page 8 in their 32nd issue out this month. Out of all the watercolor magazines out there, I feel that this one is the most professional and shows the best of the best watercolor artists around the world. I feel proud to have my painting shown in this issue.

The Meaning of Gaining Signature Status

 “The National Watercolor Society is a very prestigious organization, and the jurying in is so strict that to be able to put NWS after one’s name is really a feather in one’s cap,” Meg Huntington Cajero, a past president of the society, said. “The letters NWS matters to dealers who would be more inclined to represent an artist with them, knowing that the artist has been seen as having attained a very high level of skill and accomplishment, and dealers would point out the ‘NWS’ to potential collectors.” Yet others claim that it is worthwhile for an artist to let others know how he is esteemed by others.”

This is from an article:  Huff Post

La Cuisine Paris

La Cuisine Paris is cooking located in the center of Paris. Through a friend of mine, I had the opportunity to visit the school while she went to her pastry classes in Paris. While there, we went on a tour offered by the school called "Let Them Eat Cake" tour which meant that we were able to sample various Parisian delights of their Chocolatiers and Patisseries. Being an artist, I saw inspiration along the way for future paintings.  When I got back to the States, I proceeded to put these inspirations to paint. What became of it were two significant paintings from the tour along with of course other paintings inspired by France itself to form several paintings turning into offerings of prints and notecards.  La Cuisine was interested in letting their cliental know about the art in there latest newsletter. I am honored! Here is the Newsletter from Paris which show one of the paintings.  It is from the store called La Mazet located in the Marias area of Paris.