Archives for Watercolor

‘There’s a Method to My Madness’

‘There’s a Method to My Madness’

June 6, 2024 | by

Fruit, fabric, and flexibility are three key elements in the process watercolorist Chris Krupinski uses as she creates award-winning paintings in the studio at her home in Cincinnati, Ohio. Fruits—everything from Chinese lantern plants and clementines to grapes and pears—are the focal points of her vibrantly colored paintings. Fabric—in the form of quilts—add interesting shapes and shadows, as well as texture that differs from other items in her compositions. Flexibility enters the picture as Krupinski composes her paintings. “I love the flexibility of being able to create my own designs,” she says of the still life paintings that have earned
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Endless Inspiration

Endless Inspiration

February 8, 2024 | by

Jessica L. Bryant is a multi-dimensional woman. She’s an artist, a conservationist, a wife, a mother—and a bagpiper. Yes, you read that correctly. Bryant has been playing bagpipes since she was a teenager growing up in Minnesota and today is the pipe major of a pipe band in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. By the way, she also plays the piano, French horn, and several other instruments. What Bryant is best known for, however, are her watercolor paintings that capture the beauty of landscapes throughout the United States. Her love of the land is deep and goes beyond her art. “Being outside,
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Cowboy Storyteller

Cowboy Storyteller

May 4, 2023 | by

“When I was 14 or 15, my school offered an on-location drawing class in the summer,” says Arizona-based artist Steve Atkinson. “I’d get up early in the morning and go down to Yellow Creek with my little sketch pad and transistor radio, and I can remember just thinking to myself, ‘If I could do this for a living, it would be Heaven,'” he recalls of that class. If the teenage Atkinson could see himself now, he would likely agree that his life has been Heaven. His paintings have earned him many honors, the latest being the People’s Choice Award at
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The Challenge of Watercolors

The Challenge of Watercolors

May 4, 2023 | by

Joel R. Johnson candidly admits that painting with watercolors is a constant challenge. “Transparent watercolor is so different from all the other mediums,” he says. “At first, I was trying to paint in watercolors the way I did in oils, and that just didn’t work. It took me years to understand the technique of painting in watercolor and, especially, the properties of the paint itself.” Understanding the nuances of watercolors is critical to Johnson as he works. “The quality I am after in my paintings is that they glow, so I had to learn the differences between transparent, staining, or
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Beauty is the Goal

Beauty is the Goal

March 4, 2023 | by

“The most consistent source of my inspiration will always be nature.” So says Aaron Blaise, who spent most of his career as an animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation before turning to fine art and capturing everything from small birds and big cats to elephants and moose in a beautifully realistic style. “The natural world, for me, is an escape,” he says. “It’s a source of wonder and, ultimately, my greatest inspiration for all of the work I do, whether it be painting, drawing, or animation. The creatures we share our planet with are so diverse and beautiful and such
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Beautifully Authentic

Beautifully Authentic

March 4, 2023 | by

Monte Moore describes his art career as a large tree. After so many years as an illustrator—and so much more—he says, “I started growing another branch.” That new branch is his career as a fine artist who captures the people and wildlife of the West in a myriad of mediums, including acrylics, pencils, oils, bronze, and mixed media. The Colorado artist, who was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1971, considers himself blessed to have had parents who encouraged him and instilled in him a love of art, particularly Western art. A year after Moore was born, his father bought a
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The Studio of Joe Bohler

The Studio of Joe Bohler

November 3, 2022 | by

Having been raised on a 1,200-acre working ranch in northwestern Montana, it was not surprising that, as an adult, watercolorist Joseph Bohler would eventually make his home in a place with similar beauty and open spaces. Now living in Monument, Colorado, he and his wife Alaina try to visit his home state every year. “Every other year, I also head to South Dakota to do a little research,” he says. “There is a working ranch there that has a yearly event known as Artists’ Ride. They bring in all kinds of models–mountain men and Indians from various tribes. They can
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Capturing the Human Experience

Capturing the Human Experience

January 1, 2022 | by

An elderly woman in her Sunday-best hat, a father carrying his son on his shoulder, a man waiting at a bus stop, another asleep in his favorite chair. These evocative images of humble, hard-working people who are often overlooked by the world at large are so powerful in their simplicity that they motivated one New York art critic to describe their creator, Dean Mitchell, as a “modern-day Vermeer.” “My work is primarily about the human experience,” Mitchell says. “I want it to be a commentary on the reality of life as lived by the ordinary people in this country.” Read
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Silver Linings

Silver Linings

September 1, 2021 | by

“I always thought when you went blind, it was black. It wasn’t,” says watercolor artist Marlin Rotach, who noticed changes in his vision in the spring of 2018. “It was flesh-toned, and it was just like a curtain going across my eye until I had no sight at all.” After visiting a specialist, Rotach learned that he was suffering from a detached retina, a condition that required two surgeries and left him blind in his right eye for five months. Unable to paint, but still able to use a computer, Rotach decided to try writing biographical vignettes about historical artists
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In Search of a Vanishing America

In Search of a Vanishing America

July 1, 2021 | by

“I paint, and I ride my bike,” says watercolorist Robert McFarland. “That’s pretty much my life.” Those two pursuits might sound like opposites, but McFarland has found that they complement each other nicely. “If I’m on a bike ride, I’m always looking around for a subject,” he says. “If I go by something, it sounds weird but the subject will kind of speak to me.” During his thirty-plus year career, the subjects that have most often caught McFarland’s eye are what he calls “scenes of vanishing America.” His luminous depictions of forgotten landscapes, decaying buildings, and abandoned houses have been
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