DAILY PAINTING: After that first layer of paint dried, I had a chance to look at it and think about the painting. You can see that I created another layer with the palette knife, giving the painting alot more surface texture and variations. I also darkened the value of the water nearest to the couple, adding some of the same dark blue as in the man's pants, to better unify that area. I like the palette knife effect. To me, it seems to give more "life" to the painting.

DAILY PAINTING: I was invited by some artist friends to participate in a "painting challenge" in which you create a brand new painting, start to finish, in one day. I had a piece of 15" x 22" watercolor paper on hand, so I made a sketch of a couple I saw gazing out over the water (being careful about body proportions). Then I made some color notes and started mixing some paint. A sweet painting, but boy am I tired! And now I've got all of those paint brushes to clean--w

DAILY PAINTING: The Sketchbook Series--This series will be composed of abstracts that are based upon drawings I've accumulated in my sketchbook. My art professor instilled in us the necessity to "think on paper" and to always have our sketchbooks handy to capture something that could become the genesis of a more developed visual idea. I'm working in watercolor, and my intention is to nearly disregard color at this stage and to focus instead on "mark making".

DAILY PAINTING: "UNanswered" completed! I'm happy with the way this painting has turned out, and I'm glad that you've shared its development with me. We all have our own unanswered questions, and we all strive to make our peace with those things that remain unknown to us, those knots we can't untie. Perhaps the key is not so much in the solutions we may or may not find, but in what we learn along the way. Thank you for sharing the journey!

DAILY PAINTING: "UNanswered" Coming along nicely, with just a bit more work to be done, mostly in the detail on the right side of the canvas. But you can see that I'm working with thin paint, glazes really, letting some of the underlying color and texture interact with the main image. Tomorrow, I'll focus on the knots and cords, some of which will be accented in red. Then it'll be a matter of making those fine adjustments of color and value to tie the whole thing together

DAILY PAINTING: "UNanswered" I've begun to work on the actual canvas, and you can see the degree of difference between it and the acrylic rough draft, in terms of the complexity and nuances of the surface. On the left side of the canvas, I put down some French Ultramarine; and on the right side of the canvas, I began to work the black and whites. So far, so good!

DAILY PAINTING: "UNanswered" This is a full-sized color study for the complete concept. The simple acrylic background is an approximation of the blue common to this series. The foreground image is done in pastels to test color relationships and values. The horizontal bars are meant to balance the overall curves and verticals of the main images, and to show that we often focus intently on only parts of the larger problem. Also, I've used black and white to show that we s

DAILY PAINTING: "UNanswered" This is a concept sketch for the next painting in this series, which focuses on those questions, those things we wrestle with, that we're unable to answer. Questions about ourselves, about others, about the world. . . I've used the image of a knotted strap to visually express the tangle that our thoughts sometimes get into.