"Red Boat" (watercolor on Yupo; 8" x 8") sold

sold

The scene depicts a small charming marina at Luce Creek in Annapolis, MD.  The red boat sings in this green, blue, and purple landscape, doesn't it?  Its actual color was dark blue!  I had a lot of trouble with this painting.  I wiped out and repainted the sky and water.  Still something bothered me.  But I liked the middle section with the boats so much that I couldn't give up.  So I redid the water one more time.  More disappointment.

I was about to toss it into the waste basket, because one cannot mess with a painting forever.  Suddenly a light bulb went off.  Why not crop it and get rid of the offending bottom portion?  I am raising the attitude of "Never give up, never surrender" to an art form!

Reference photo

"Morning Harbor" (watercolor on Yupo; 20" x 26") sold

sold

As you know, I used to be a daredevil watercolorist.  I would occasionally pull out a full-sheet of Yupo, the  slick, synthetic "paper" with zero absorbency, let my hair down, and do the wild thing.  With Yupo, the artist has very little control over the painting process.  Paints puddle in oddest places and do their own crazy stuff.  "Red Sails" is the probably the best Yupo painting I have ever done.  I absolutely adore its drippy, watery, lyrical quality.

"Red Sails" (watercolor on Yupo, 20" x 26") sold

"Morning Harbor" is another watercolor painting on Yupo.  It depicts a harbor in northern England bathed in the morning light.  There are no puddles in the painting!  I don't know how I was able to pull it off.  I probably tried a few times to get it just right. (The Yupo surface mars easily; one cannot make corrections easily.)  If I had not told you, you would not have thought it was a Yupo painting.  It has an airy, serene, whispering quality.  Which painting do you like better?