Renée

Bill Teitsworth, NWS

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For the watermedia artist, "landscape season" is over once your paint water starts to freeze. Now with Spring coming, landscape season is coming around again, and warm-up exercises like these sky studies (below and at right) make sense to me. Even though I'm interested in the sky, I try to make all the pieces work together. Now I'm interested in how to make trees come against the sky in a believable way.

High Summer

acrylic on linen
8" X 10"
March 5, 2010

Sky at MacLain Farm

acrylic on ragboard
10" X 12"

March 1, 2010

Periodically I get interested in skies, what my mentor Betty Lou Schlemm used to call "...the soul of the landscape." It's an interesting challenge to try to get it right, that huge arching dome, and make it really feel like a sky. We shall see. Sky at MacLain Farm, at left.

So, at right is the second version of my demo. Still using that cropped full-sheet format. Same palette, same value-plan. Just taking it to the next level, and pushing the image to see where it leads. At the "thumbnail" size you can see that for sheer impact, the earlier, simpler version has a slight edge. But at the larger size, or "normal viewing distance," the elaboration of the second image starts to work.

This is the image-making process!

Pennsylvania Nocturne

watercolor on Arches paper
22" X 28"
(Second version of demo)
Feb 24-26, 2010

Last of the Light

watercolor on Arches paper
22" X 28"
Demo, February 20, 2010

There are two other versions of Last of the Light (left): one in my sketchbook, and a small "color rough" done in acrylics. This version was a demo for our class today, so there are one or two problems with it, but still, I must say, this is very close to what I want to say about this subject.

The point of the demo was to show the power of a greatly simplified value-scale. Just three widely-separated values: a light near the white of the paper, a dark near black, and that shadowed blue almost exactly between the two.

In the two demos, at right and below, I was exploring different aspects of painting snow. Of course, in watercolor you paint everything else but the "snow," which is usually untouched white paper.

In the one at right, I really overstated that blue for the shadows...a move that gave me the leeway to put a lot of strength in the sky. The combination of the brilliant white of the paper, the bold blue shadows, and the blustery sky really conveys, for me, the feel of the day...after the storm.

After the Storm

watercolor on Fabriano paper
22" X 15"

Demo, January 23, 2010

Foreground Shadows

watercolor on Fabriano paper
24" X 18"

Demo, January 9, 2010

China Delight

watermedia on ragboard
36" X 27"
2009
The 143rd Annual International Exhibition,
The American Watercolor Society,
at The Salmagundi Club in New York
April 6th-May 2nd, 2010

Claire with Flowers
(hommage a Bonnard)

acrylic on ragboard
8" X 7"
2010

At left, "inspired by the masters"...in this case, a double-barreled investigation into Bonnard's color and his wonderful, quirky sense of composition. An exercise like this is fun to try occasionally, and is a great way to map out interesting new directions.

December 15, 2009

White Still-life

watercolor on Fabriano paper
22" X 30"

Demo, December 4th

The companion piece to Black Still-life. Here the "forms" are carved out of the untouched white paper by the midtone washes. The rough, raw quality doesn't bother me...it was a demo, after all...but I may have gone overboard in selecting "unpretty" subject matter. Still, our students definitely got the point, and they did a fabulous job!

Saturday class, December 4th, 2009

November 24th, 2009. At right, a short pose from our sketch group...trying out the new batch of Domestic Etching paper.

Claire, Tuesday 11/24

pastel on Domestic Etching
26" X 20"

Black Still-life

watercolor on Fabriano paper

26" X 22"
Bill Teitsworth, NWS
November 2009

At left, a demo from our class today, November 21st. It was great fun to do, and I hope that sense of enjoyment comes through!

Fenceline, acrylic on linen, below, can be seen until the end of November at the National Arts Club, Gramercy Square South, NYC, in the Allied Artists of America annual.

Study for "Fenceline"

Permanent marker on sketch paper
Drawing Board
The Artist's Magazine, June 2009

For web-exclusive tips on value-contrast in
drawing, go to:

http://www.artistsnetwork.com/article/value-contrast-technique

Winged Being

watercolor on Arches paper
30" X 22"

Civic Ballet of Scranton Art/Dance Collaboration

PS: Click to enlarge the images in my gallery below (some "pre-crash" ones don't work), and don't forget to hit the "back" arrow on your browser to return to the gallery.

Recent Watercolors and Acrylics

Patterns, Summer Fields
(demo 2008)

watercolor on Fabriano paper
15" X 22"

Food Court
(Study for "China Delight")

acrylic on ragboard
9" X 5"
2009

The Green Pool

acrylic on paper
32" X 21"
2008

The Walser Greathouse Medal
142nd Annual International Exhibition,
American Watercolor Society
March 31-April 26, 2009

Portrait

watercolor on Aquabee wet-media paper
9" X 12"
Watch our "Workshops" page for info on upcoming workshops in portrait and landscape at
The Art School of Northeast Pennsylvania!

Marshall Point Light (demo)

watercolor on Fabriano paper
22" X 17"
2008

Festival Tents at Conte's

watercolor on Fabriano paper
15' X 22'
2008

McClellan Point (demo)

watercolor on Fabriano paper
2008

Owls Head Harbor

watercolor on Fabriano paper
2007
Courtesy of the Landing Gallery, Rockland, ME

sold

You'll be able to see one of the pencil studies for
Early Morning, Bullshead, at right, in my article for the "Drawing Board" department of The Artist's Magazine, October 2008...on newstands or in your mailbox on September 9th.