Car Culture -- Diane Morgan and Ron Morrison

Eldorado

watercolor, 17" x 22"
Diane Morgan

This Caddie Has Run Its Course
watercolor, 15" x 30"
Ron Morrison

Diane Morgan and Ron Morrison are both passionate about cars, but approach the subject from quite different directions. While Diane celebrates the new/shiny/powerful aspects of cars, Ron finds inspiration in their decline -- from single "portraits" to piles of rusting hulks. Both of them skillfully exploit watercolor to depict the characteristics of their subjects and clearly enjoy working with the medium.

Diane's goal is "to transform simple everyday life into un-ordinary, not-so-still life" which she accomplishes by using lighting, reflections, exaggerated contrasts and unusual compositions. She says, "I love how the medium takes command. The artist starts the process, but the paint takes charge and leads the work to a sometimes unintended outcome. It's always exhilarating."

Diane's portfolio:

Hot As A Heartbeat, 22" x 29"

Heaven is a '57, 20" x 15"

Mercedes Mascot, 20" x 16"

Highway to Heaven, 22" x 28

Top Down Day, 21" x 16"

Ron says simply, "I've always loved the shapes and colours of old vehicles as they settle in for the long rust. I especially enjoy creating scenes using characters I have collected over the years. These paintings are from my imagination. I am after the entertainment factor. No mask, little reference material, just draw and paint." Ron often returns to the same subjects, recombining images and manipulating mood through his use of form and color.

Ron's portfolio:

'35 Plymouth, 11" x 15"


Pile of Chevys (detail)


The Heaps Are Piling Up, 22" x 30"


Shifting Into Neutrals, 22" x 30"


The Trading Post V, 22" x 30"


Halloween Is Near, 22" x 30"

Please visit Diane's website and Ron's blog to see more of their paintings.

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The Year in Review -- 2010

The Slide feature has been discontinued as of March 2012.

It's hard to believe that another year has passed! This week marks the second annniversary of this blog -- a personal journey of discovery for me as I met new artists and, happily, an increasingly popular resource for other watercolorists. There are now over 850 subscribers, a number I couldn't begin to imagine when I started. My thanks to all the artists who so graciously shared their work and helped to promote the blog.

Once again, I'm presenting a slide revue of the year's artists -- 25 in all. To view a profile, click on the artist's name in the Index Links at the bottom of the sidebar. Or go directly to an artist's website by clicking on his/her name in Featured Artists - 2010. And to see a recap of last year's artists, you can view the slide show for 2009 here.

After two years of following the format I devised at the start, I am ready to try some new things. I'm not quite sure what direction I'm going to take this, but I want more flexibility in the coming year -- both to keep my own creative juices flowing and to sustain your interest in the features. So I hope you'll continue the journey with me and enjoy the ride!!

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Bill Hook

Low Tide – Staithes, 13" x 10"

After four decades as a successful and respected architect and nationally recognized architectural illustrator, Bill Hook is on the threshold of a whole new world of artistic expression. Breaking away from the exacting constraints of the commercial world, he is just beginning to experience the challenges and rewards of plein air work. A turning point came in 2007, when he received a fellowship to live and paint for two months in the tiny hilltown of Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy. In two months, he produced over 60 drawings and paintings. He returned to Civita in May, 2010 and then continued on to the small English fishing village of Staithes, where he enjoyed the changing weather and light of the Yorkshire coast. Although his work is informed and influenced by his architectural background, he now feels free to break away from realistically recording a scene and to focus more on the quality of light and the feeling of a place and time.

Church Street – Staithes, 13" x 10"

White House I, 10" x 6"

Bill was juried into the NWWS Annual Open Exhibition in 2009, and into the Richeson 75 Landscapes Show in both 2009 and 2010. In September, 2010, he participated in his first major plein air event -- the 5th Annual US Open in Coupeville, WA -- and had two pieces selected for the show. He received an Honorable Mention for one of those paintings and it also sold at the live auction. Bill continues to pursue both plein air and studio work. He currently has six pieces hanging in a collective show at The Artique Underground Gallery in Frederick MD.

Coupeville, 13" x 10"

Civita, 13" x 10"

Please go to Bill's website to see more of his work.

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Deb Ward

Blue Pitcher and Pears on Lace, 16" x 20"
fluid acrylic

It was the luminosity of watercolor that first drew Deb Ward to the medium. She got a late start on a painting career when she left the 9 to 5 work world in 1996 and fulfilled a long-held dream of learning to paint in watercolor. In 2004, she began teaching watercolor classes and, over the following years, she broadened her painting horizons by teaching herself to paint with fluid acrylics and casein. She now works in all three media.

Tulip Shadows, 21" x 28"
watercolor

Deb observes, "I love color and strive for striking, sunlit images.... My work rarely involves an actual figure, but often implies the human element." She often paints in series -- working from her own photo references to explore similar subjects or ideas in a realistic manner. Although she is always on the lookout for subjects when she's out and about, Deb has an ongoing series of simple still lifes incorporating glass and ceramic objects that belonged to her mother, as well as quilts and tablecloths made by her grandmother. She paints in her home studio and also enjoys a weekly painting date with friends.

Pink Peony, 21" x 29"
fluid acrylics

Wild Roses, 21" x 28"
watercolor

Deb is active in a number of local art groups in southeastern Indiana and the Cincinnati area; she is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Art Club in addition to being the Chairperson for ViewPoint, a national exhibition sponsored by the club. She teaches classes for several organizations in her area and also gives workshops on technique in her home studio. She has shown her work in local, regional, and national exhibitions and has received numerous awards. In October 2008, she wrote an article about casein painting "Cay-What?" for CreateBetterPaintings.com -- Online Magazine for Artists, and in 2010, her work was published in The Best of America -- Watermedia, Volume II (Kennedy Publishing).

Muncie's Pride, 14" x 20"
watercolor

Go to Deb's blog to get the latest news from her studio.

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Susanne Clark

Prickly Heat, 14" x 14"

Being a painter has transformed the way Susanne Clark views and interprets her surroundings -- nothing looks the same as it did 5 or 10 years ago. In her experience, the artist’s eye is an adaptive one, always changing its way of seeing and portraying the world, and she is moved to paint when light, shadow and color come together in a dynamic way that captures her imagination. She finds working with transparent watercolor is like solving a series of puzzles -- how to get a certain texture, what pigments to mix for an unusual color, whether to add water -- a process she enjoys.

Pure Honey, 12" x 10"

P is for Pumpkin, 18" x 12"

Although she is self-taught, Susanne has taken workshops with Tom Francesconi, Karen Knutson, and Donna Jill Witty, expanding her skills in diverse ways through their workshops. She paints primarily from photos, but believes that good draftsmanship is of utmost importance, so she regularly practices sketching from life. Recent work with pastels has also been rewarding, but the sublime interaction of brush, paper, water, and pigment always draws her back to watercolor.

Don't Forget the Onions, 6" x 6"

Susanne began painting in the late 1990s and has been juried into national exhibitions with the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, the Northwest Watercolor Society, the Wyoming Watercolor Society, the Richeson 75, and the Maryland Federation of Art, as well as numerous exhibitions in the Chicago area. She is a signature member of the Illinois Watercolor Society, the Northwest Watercolor Society, and the Wyoming Watercolor Society. She is represented by the Old Courthouse Arts Center in Woodstock, IL.

Snooze, 11" x 15"

Go to Susanne's gallery page on the Illinois Watercolor Society website to see more of her work.

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Sarah Yeoman

Winter of the White Pines, 17" x 21"

"For me the poetry of color and the music of line are best expressed with watercolor because of its unpredictable nature and its transparent qualities."

Fueled by her love of both music and a wide range of visual arts including sculpture, Sarah Yeoman eventually found her strongest creative voice in watercolor. Nourished by the natural beauty of northern Delaware and of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, she is attuned to the mood and spirit of the land. Rather than laying on paper an exact copy of the world she observes, she allows her paintings to develop organically -- revealing the presence of the artist in the process -- and, with each painting, she invites the viewer to enter the narrative and finish the story.

Falling Light, 22" x 30"

Crow Caucus, 22" x 30"

Teaching is an integral part of who Sarah is as an artist. She teaches weekly classes in her studio as well as workshops thoughout the Northeast, guiding and coaching her students to discover their own paths and unique visual expression. Her paintings have been juried into museum and gallery shows in Delaware and Pennsylvania, and her work is on display at Hardcastle Gallery in Centreville, DE and at Abanakee Studios in Indian Lake, NY. Sarah is on the board of the Philadelphia Watercolor Society and has recently been chosen as one of fifteen Master Artists from the state of Delaware.

Homer's Blues, 22" x 30"

Ocean, 20" x 30"

Please link to Sarah's website to see more of her work.

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