Watercolors: Oregon Dunes
At Oregon Dunes National Recreational Area…
Tags: art, painting, watercolor
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.At Oregon Dunes National Recreational Area…
Tags: art, painting, watercolor
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
May 28, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Oh, Friar! It’s so lovely! I love watercolour! The sky and…everything…WOW! I feel transported there.
May 28, 2008 at 1:19 pm
@Steph
Thanks!
I gave the painting away (as a wedding gift to one of my favorite cousins).
I almost regret parting with it,…but he’s a good cousin, and I can’t keep everything I paint, can I?
May 28, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Nope. You have to make room for more.
May 28, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Your paintings are really nice guy!
I admire those that can handle watercolors like that…it can be a tricky medium. Is that great texture from the board you painted on? How big was it?
Love it.
May 28, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Wow, Friar, that’s really good. Quite a talent you’ve got there.
May 28, 2008 at 6:48 pm
@Karen
The texture is from the 300-lb. Arches paper I used. But the scanner I have isnt’ the greatest so it tends to exaggerate the shadows, and the bumpiness. The painting is about 6 x 8 inches….mabye a bit bigger.
I really dont’ know why I like watercolor because it takes a lot of patience, which goes totally against my personality!
May 28, 2008 at 6:49 pm
@Matt
Thanks for the compliment. (I just hope I keep painting…it’s hard in the summer, I get to distracted with fishing and caoneing and all the other outdoor stuff).
May 28, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Ah, very zen. Excellent eye. It is truly difficult to take a huge outdoor experience and articulate it in it’s essential form. Bravo. You might like watercolor because it flows. It’s like exploring a creek playing in rivulets of color. Moving a sable brush across untouched paper and leaving a bit of yourself there. Very nice Friar.
May 28, 2008 at 8:22 pm
@Janice: “Moving a sable brush across untouched paper and leaving a bit of yourself there.”
WOW. Goosebumps! Makes me want to paint, now, but I leave that to my sister. I haven’t such talent!
May 28, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Wow — it’s absolutely beautiful! I wish I was hiking there right now …
May 28, 2008 at 8:35 pm
@Janice
Thanks! I agree…there is something really fun about making water and pigment move on paper. …but I must admit it’s not a sable brush. I use the cheapest $4 nylon brushes in the store! (I tend to break and lose things, so it’s easier this way)
@steph
Go grab a brush..and GO FOR IT.
@Rebecca
I thought hiking there would be awesome…but it actually wasn’t. Once you got off the boardwalk, it was at least a mile, before you even approached the water. It was really hard walking….one foot forward, too feet backward in loose sand.
May 28, 2008 at 9:04 pm
@ Steph- Thanks. Go for it.
@ Friar- Sable is awfully nice, I use them. Have some synthetic blends as well. But I would make a brush out of a frayed twig or a feather, if I had to, just to play in the puddles. I have also used iced tea or beer for water when I had no water within reach.
May 28, 2008 at 9:11 pm
@Janice
I had a watercolor teacher who once told me if he hiked in the mountains and had no water, he’d use his own PEE!
(Ugh!). I’m not THAT keen to paint.
May 28, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Good call, Friar. Sand hiking = not very fun. I should know this; I grew up in Rhode Island!
May 28, 2008 at 10:49 pm
As long as the sand is wet, it isn’t too bad (think, near the ocean).
You’ve told me about this part of the world and shared some of your photos and other work – I’d love to go visit.
Nice artwork, my friend.
-Brett
May 28, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Eee-yew That’s when you take a frigging photo!!!! Ack ack, ackkk…..that is beyond gross!!!! And it so not archival !!!!
Yuck. He was so putting you on. Ugh,and double yuck..ee-yew
May 28, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I have one of Friar’s paintings of the bay at Kennebunkport, Maine. He painted it on sight with sea water.
May 29, 2008 at 12:13 am
Ann- Oh thank you. That is such a better image.
ahhh.
May 29, 2008 at 12:27 am
Friar, this is beautiful. When I was a kid my mom bought me one of those paint by number watercolor kits. It had a really nice canvas and you were supposed to follow the numbers to paint. I got too impatient and just added the colors where I wanted. They were still good pictures though and my mom hung them both up proudly. I thought it was funny that she was proud like I’d really done something special. I would love to take an art class though and learn to paint without numbers.
May 29, 2008 at 12:41 am
@Brett
When I saw Oregon Sand Dunes National Monument, I thought great, I can just walk up to the beach. But when I got there, all I saw was sand…dry dry sand…the water was nowhere in sight. It was literally miles away, and there were huge dunes hundreds of feet high. Just like those desert movies. The only way for people to get around is if they were yahoos with dune buggies.
Oregon is great..but hey, you’ve been to New Zealand. That place rocks!
@Janice
Well, I dunno if that teacher was putting me on. He was this eccentric 80 year old German guy…who the F. knows when he was serious or not? (He wasn’t a very good teacher either…I didnt’ stay with him too long).
Images of Urine-soaked paintings…UGH!
@Ann Onymous.
Yeah, I think I know the painting you’re talking about. That was a while ago. Salt water is a much better medium that others (mentionned above), don’t you think?
@Karen
Hey, I did paint by numbers…well into my teens! I loved ‘em.
Painting isnt’ that hard…if you find the right teacher. You don’t even have to take it too serious…it could just be an evening art class held at the local library or at the community center. That’s how I started (after my paint by numbers!)
You know what’s funny? You can buy completed paint by numbers on Ebay (that somebody ELSE did!)
Why, for the life of me, anyone would want to buy this, I dont’ know. But it’s there to buy, if people want.
May 29, 2008 at 12:52 am
I loved paint by numbers! They are considered genre pieces now. Go figure.
I know Friar, the price of being visual…too much sometimes…do you have pieces from all your travels?
May 29, 2008 at 2:55 am
@Janice
I seriously started painting about 9 years ago, and I paint mostly (but not all the time) from my own vacation photos.
So yes, most of my travels are commemorated by my paintings…from about 1999 and ownwards.
May 29, 2008 at 10:58 am
Friar,
Beautiful. The deep shadow in the dunes is lovely, it really catches my eye. The subtle variations in the trees at center work best for me. Just peaceful and beautiful.
Show more, show more!
Regards,
Kelly
May 29, 2008 at 1:16 pm
wonderful!!!!!!
May 29, 2008 at 2:43 pm
@Kelly
I have to “ration” my paintings. If I show too many at once, I’ll run out of material.
There is so much a Friar can do. (I do paint a lot, but not all of them turn out)
Heh heh heh. Or mabye I should show my “Bad Art” as well. So everyone can learn from it.
@Darren
Thanks! (By the way, I think your stuff is pretty damned good too!)