Warming at the Window

It was an unusually cold San Diego New Years Day in 2017. Yes, I know we're spoiled, but still, bundling up in heavy clothes and snugging under blankets is not what we signed up for in moving here. I decided I needed to paint something warm and sunny, so I did.

I was honored to receive the information that "Warming at the Window" was accepted into the February 2017 San Diego Watercolor Society member show out of several hundred entries. A special bonus, it was juried by one of my favorite watercolor artists, Keiko Tanabe, a little bit like having your favorite rock star tip their hat!

This painting will also represent two huge discoveries for me. I try to avoid white paint if I can, allowing the white of the paper to speak brightly. I use an acrylic masking material for this. As I masked the highlights along the edges of the vertical post and some of Cleo's highlights, a thought occurred to me. I began dragging a standard pin through the wet mask in a quick flicking motion like 1/32 notes picked on a guitar to get fine hairlike textures. You can see the result in the third detail at the right, and more details on my Instagram work in progress post.

The second breakthrough for me was an understanding of how to approach strangers about my work without sounding like a cheap car salesman, which I detail at length in my most recent blog post.

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