Eleven years ago, when Tim Oliver walked into his house in Lubbock, Texas, his wife Missy took one look at him and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” he replied.

The next day, when he received an email advertising a four-day classroom and plein air painting art workshop, he realized what it was that was bothering him. For 30 years he had put aside his desire to paint, but that email brought it back to the surface.

“I had hit the 50-year mark, and I thought that all those things I said I’d do I better do,” he recalls. “I had gotten busy with life and didn’t have time to pursue it, but I kept thinking, ‘One of these days I’m going to figure out watercolors.’”

Read the entire article in the May/June 2020 issue.

Konriko Rice Mill

Watercolor
12” by 12”

“I painted this en plein air at the Shadows-on-the-Teche plein air competition in New Iberia, Louisiana. I was attracted to the old mill but intimidated by the prospect of capturing a meaningful composition of the hulking tin building. I stumbled around until I was pleased with the result.”

Red Barn in Lubbock County

Watercolor
10” by 14”

“I painted this on a bright summer afternoon about a mile from my home. I’d sketched and painted it several times before. I liked the way this one worked. It’s hard to mess up a simple composition with such great shapes to work with.”