Pretty Boy Peacock

15x22 wet in wet watercolor painted quickly and spontaneously of this proud peacock strutting his stuff for the camera.  Ref courtesy WetCanvas! weekend drawing event 2010.  Paints used:  Daniel Smith, American Journey, and DaVinci; paper 140 lb cold press Strathmore.

God Bless America

Liberty says "God Bless America" on this Lord's Day remembering those fallen heroes 10 years ago on September 11, 2001.  Let us never, ever forget and cherish our freedom that is not free.

Neighbor's Cat

24x18 watercolor of a very curious cat looking outside his house to some intriguing object, probably a bird or a moving tree branch or even another cat.  Painted wet in wet on Canson Montval block I used Daniel Smith, DaVinci, and American Journey paints.



Chili with Pink Zinnia - a pet portrait

15x22 watercolor of my tuxedo kitty named Chili.  He is now 10 years old this month and I've painted him many times.  A few years back I set up a still life of fresh zinnias in a sunflower pitcher, an old quilt and napkin and he jumped on the table top and decided to be part of the not-so-still still life.  Although this painting was not done today I'm posting Chili's portrait in honor of his birthday.  It was painted wet in wet with no masking for his whiskers.  This set up was in my living room that has dark Hunter green walls...there appeared tiny marks in the paint so after it dried I added different pieces of color for an unusual pattern.

Puerto Rico Condo

19x12.5 watercolor on Italia 140 lb paper, American Journey paints begun yesterday and finished today. I took this photo of our condo on our first visit to Puerto Rico in 1995 with the intention of painting it someday, but didn't realize it would take me this long! This is wet on dry painting darks first.

BEFORE version of China Cabinet

This is the still life that got me interested in reworking into a vertical composition as posted below in China Cabinet.
Size 15x22; flowers, vase, pitcher, onions and cloth were items we used to paint from in an oil painting workshop with Ann Templeton in Odessa, TX several years ago.  I used many of my photos of those to paint watercolors later on.  I just did not like this one as my white pitcher proportions are off.  Flowers were okay but not spectacular and there was plenty of color.  When reworking it I did crop it as you can see from comparison of the two.  The title of this one was called Ann's Garden Variety.

Three's Company - fruit still life

15x22 watercolor demo for a local art group of three pears colorfully displayed on a white tablecloth done in about 1.5 hours.  I love the shadow play evident on the far right pear.  Photo ref courtesy WetCanvas! reference image library.  Paper is Italia 140 lb cold press, paint is American Journey by Cheap Joe's Art Stuff.