Category Archives: Watercolors

Nellie In Watercolor, Part 4.

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The morning ritual, ” Hey I need some attention here!”

As I sat down to upload the latest on Nellie’s progress, she came in and laid her head across my keyboard. I scratched her ears and then got up, because she wanted out. Settling back in to finish the post, I only had to wait about 30 seconds before the “boof boof” came from the front door, so up again and let her back in. Comfy again and ready to start, then she’s back. Head in my lap, because it’s 6:02, and we are late for breakfast. Breakfast is 6:00 am sharp. Back up to feed Tom and Nellie. Tom is our 14 year old golden. Sit down again, but then Tom is done and needs out, so back up. Once more down, and then here comes Nellie and she’s done and wants out. Up again. Finally, down and ready to finish. “Boof boof”, back up to let her back in. Now we can finish. A typical morning around here. I can’t understand why I don’t get more done.

I thought I might finish this painting this weekend, but it didn’t happen. So instead I will just give you another installment. I’ve done most of her final shading, and now need to finish the pheasant and the background detail. More to come.

Nellie installment 4.

Nellie In Watercolor, Part 3

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GoldenGlen Redtail Nitro Nellie JH WC just being “Boopie”

I have to apologize for taking so long to get to this latest installment of Nellie In Watercolor.  Watercolor is supposed to be fast.  However, Nellie’s painting is a guilty pleasure for me.  As a result, I catch a few minutes here and there to move it along.

Nellie is a dog with many names.  All of our dogs get nicknames along the way, however Nellie has the more than all the others.  Her registered name is GoldenGlen Redtail Nitro Nellie JH WC.  Around here she is mostly just Nellie, Boop or Boopie.  She belongs to our oldest son, but lives with us for now.  Our son came up with Boopie because it just seems to fit her personality.  This also led to Boopster and Boopie Doo.  Then there is Nellie Bean ( rhythms with Jelly Bean), Bean, Bean Dog, Nellster, Nellienator, and Fuzzball. When she was a growing puppy she went through an awkward phase like many puppies.  Usually their feet and legs grow first and their body has to catch up later.  With Nellie, her nose grew first and it was huge.  That led to The Nose and Nozzle Nellie.  Fortunately, she grew into her nose and became the swan that she is today.  Then over the course of one year, she had multiple encounters with a skunk, which led to Stinky and Stink Face.   Lastly, an incident with a rattlesnake resulted in Snake Bit, and Snake Bite.  Hopefully, no more animal encounters she has enough nicknames.

Here is the latest on her watercolor.

More detail for Nellie

Large Mouth Bass Study 3

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Large Mouth Bass Study

Here is the last one. It was all wet wash technique. I followed it with pen and ink for detail. I like the wet approach although this picture isn’t quite right for the project. Perhaps I need to do the pen and ink first. Any thoughts?

Large Mouth Bass Study 2

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Large Mouth Bass Study 2

With this watercolor I used strictly dry brush technique. I followed this with pen and ink. However, I don’t think this is the style I’m looking for this project.

Large Mouth Bass Study 1

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Large mouth Bass Study

I’m working on a project involving large mouth bass.  This is my first pass at a straight up watercolor.  At this point I’m getting familiar with my subject.  It is for a children’s book so this style is probably not child friendly enough.

Nellie In Watercolor, Part 2

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The big stick contest.

Nellie is a stick dog and so is Blitz, her daughter.  They always like to compete over sticks.  This particular day, last Winter, they seemed to be competing over who could find the biggest stick.  Nellie taught Blitz a thing or two about picking the biggest stick.

Part 2. The base wash.

Now back to the watercolor.  The next stage is the base wash.

Nellie In Watercolor, Part 1

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Nellie in her youth at Iron Canyon Reservoir.

She is a smart pushy redhead and her name is Nellie.  She is a 12 year old golden retriever.  She belongs to our oldest son although she has continued to live with my wife and me since our son grew up and moved out on his own.  She is very good at dog to human communications.  If she wants out, she rattles the door knob with her nose.  When it is 8:00 pm she comes and reminds me that it is dinner time, even after the time change.  I’m not sure how she does that, but she does it without missing a beat.  When I ignore her demands she shakes her head at me and stares as if she thinks I’m very dense.  If I continue to ignore her she gives me a deep “boof.”  She is quite a girl.

Over eleven years ago she was running in the AKC Hunt Tests.  At the time our son got Nellie we had an agreement with him.  It was that he would have to earn a title with her.  This was to insure that she was trained into a well mannered dog.  So he ran her in the Hunt Tests.  It was a little rough watching a Junior Handler running a Junior Dog.  Inexperience in the case of the both accompanied by lots twitching and fiddling around sometimes made the events a little nerve racking to his parents.  At one event, when the bird was thrown my son was messing with her lead and she didn’t appear to mark the falling bird.  She dutifully ran across the creek, the long way around, and into the field.  She looked about as if she didn’t have a clue where the bird was.  Then she sat down.  We could hear the gallery groan uncomfortably at the thought that this boy and his beautiful golden were about to fail this test.  She looked around the grounds while she sat.  The seconds slowly ticked away and we know the judges were about to tell him to “pick up” his dog.  There was no point in continuing this embarrassing performance.  Without warning Nellie stood up and ran straight to the fallen bird.  She picked it up as if she knew where it was all along and delivered to my son.  This was just one tense leg in a 4 series test, and at the end of the day they both passed the test.

The original sketch I did for the watercolor of Nellie eleven years ago.

Back at that time I started on a watercolor of Nellie.  I sketched it out on a watercolor pad, but never got around to finishing it.  Not long ago I came across the dusty sketch.  I decided to work on it and post my progress on the blog along the way.  Today I’m featuring the original eleven year old sketch.  I hope not to embarrass myself with this process, but after all you know what they say, “paint like no one is watching” or something close to that.

Blaze

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Blaze impatiently waits for her driver.

Blaze rode with me for years.  She loved to go to work and hated to be left at home.  When I would go into my office in the morning she would find the highest point on the truck and intently watch the backdoor impatiently.  She would wait for me to come out so I could take her to the woods.  If she could have driven the truck herself she would have, and I would have been left behind.

She was a tremendous AKC Hunt Test competitor and loved to work.   I painted this of her when she was actively running events.  She would sit in the yard and stare at me refusing to come in until I would come out and train her.  In this watercolor I was trying to capture her intensity and joy of the hunt.

A happy girl.

We logged a lot of miles together a chased a lot of squirrels.  Well, she chased the squirrels.  She was amazing companion and I miss her dearly.

Wildfire Returns to Northern California

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The Ponderosa Fire from across the valley.

Fire is upon the North State once again.  It has been a few years since we have had fire like this.  Thousands of our neighbors have had to evacuate their homes.  The air is thick with smoke.  The firefighters, air attack, and equipment operators battle the fires to protect life and property.  Please keep the folks in the paths of these fire in you thoughts and prayers.

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From Firestorm In The Forest, a Redtail Publishing Book.

I opened my front door this morning to let the dog out, and the air is clouded with smoke and the smell or fire is strong.  The Ponderosa Fire is burning about 15 miles from where I am sitting.  As this drama unfolds the picture of the forest that I worked on for years is rapidly changing.  Thinned timberstands, young tree plantations and acres of mature forests that I help manage.  For people the fire is a tragedy, but to nature it isn’t good or bad only different.  Nature is violently changing the picture of this forest that I remember.  It will re-calibrate and fill the void created by the fire and a new picture is created.  In the meantime the foresters and loggers work side by side with firefighters to stop this fire.

How Is A Forester Like An Artist?

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The forester and the artist both create landscapes.  Only a forester’s canvas is far larger than an artist’s canvas.  The artist uses pencils, pens, brushes and all the other tools that create the play of color and light on paper.  The forester’s tools are far larger, louder and powerful.  They are the skidders, feller-bunchers, chainsaws, yarders and seedlings.  Okay, I know what you are thinking, what kind of baloney is this guy selling.  When we look out at a forest we see a beautiful thing.  Harvesting trees changes how that forest looks and develops.  The conventional wisdom may be that harvesting trees makes a forest ugly and at stages along the way I would agree.  That is all part of the process.  When an area is burned in a wildfire and the salvage harvest is complete it looks pretty bad to most folks.  This is only one stage in the development of an ever-changing picture.  Soon the seedlings come and it is no longer a barren clearcut, but it is a brand new forest.

A new forest rising from ashes of a wildfire.

Each year the trees grow and the picture is adorned with deer, turkeys and other wildlife that forage in this new forest.  As a forester I relish the changes I see with each passing year and how our work adds to the picture.  For a forester the picture is never done so we have to appreciate it for what it is at this moment in time.  Most folks have memories of that favorite camping spot in the forest that they went to as a child.  Memories that are so striking and indelible that they cannot imagine them ever changing.  However, these forest change every day.  Mostly slowly, but sometimes in blazing moments.  To the forest the changes are not good or bad, but simply different.  To the forester it is a canvas on which to apply his or her trade.  The forest changes and grows and our pictures change with it.  We may not always agree on what makes beautiful art or a beautiful forest, but I hope as practitioners of the trade we are passionate and dedicated to the process.

I did this watercolor for the children’s book Firestorm In The Forest , a Red Tail Publishing book.

As an artist working in the forest provides an endless source of subjects to paint or draw.  Never stale and always changing.  I never know when I will come across a bear crashing through the brush or a dramatic vista that will make me pause for a minute to take it in.