Plein Air-A New Adventure in Watercolor

Garden Tomatoes

Alla Prima 

Watercolor

6" x 6"

$35.00

(includes custom 12" x 12" mat)

I've always been more of a "studio" artist.  I take my photographs and studies into

the studio and workout my paintings before I begin.  This has served me well.

When the opportunity came up to take a plein air workshop with Christopher Leeper 

at Studio 14 I saw an opportunity to expand my experience and perhaps improve

 on my scenery painting.  So I headed out with my watercolor supplies and easel to

 practice painting  "plein air" before the actual workshop.  It was a challenge.

Challenge, true, but an enjoyable  as I experienced the panoramic view, sounds and smells,

the frustration of changing light and distilling information.  Yea, I needed the workshop.

One afternoon (before the workshop) I really wanted to feel that I had accomplished

a painting.   

So limiting my view to a garden spot, and sitting on a case with my pallet 

on the ground I painted these glorious tomatoes.  I loved the smell of the plants as

the breeze drifted over the garden, felt the heat of the sun bare down on my back and 

kept an eye on a huge yellow and black spider in a web that was about 2 feet wide.

All in all, I painted six different landscapes and one garden tomatoe.  

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop.  Chris was a really good teacher with a relaxed manner.

I appreciated the information on capturing shapes and values.  The most valuable reminder as 

a watercolor painter was to go warm before considering the cools.  

I think when I pack up my

supplies to head out to paint plein air at the October Paint Out in Tipp City on the 20th I will

be a more confident painter.

"Red Tailed Hawk" ACEO original by Rusty Harden

"Red Tailed Hawk"

ACEO 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

$15.00

Original Watercolor Painting

Rusty Harden

The Red Tailed Hawk is one of the wildlife ambassadors at the Brukner Nature Center, Troy, Ohio.

We are reminded that we share this planet with other amazing living creatures and what we do or do not often has an impact on their very survival.  Education is the key.  The proceeds of this sale will go to Brukner Nature Center, directly.

Trillium Original Watercolor Painting Rusty Harden

Woodland wildflowers are beautiful but fleating. 

If you aren't there at just the right time, they are gone

until next year.  I think that I am drawn to them for

that reason.  Its reminds me to enjoy the moment,

and to look for beauty  because it may be gone in

 the next moment.

As trillium mature (another way of saying get old) they turn pink. 

The first week I observed these trillium they were all white.

A week later, while many more had bloomed, the older ones

were in their glory of pinkness. 

"Trillium"

Wildflowers

10" x 7"

Watercolor

Daffodils Original Watercolor Painting by Rusty Harden

"Beauty in Imperfection"

12" x 9"

Watercolor

April usually brings daffodils, an early sign of spring. I have attempted to paint them many times and have always failed. It is the translucent nature of the petals that is so hard to maintain while capturing the light and dark contrast.

I loved the one with the torn trumpet and the way it reveals what is on the inside of the flower. Its like people, sometimes you can’t know what is in them until they are wounded.

"Auroras" by Painting by Rusty Harden

"Auroras"

8" x 10"

$95.00

Watermedia

Rusty Harden

During the exhibit "Out of the Depths" March 4 - April 24

at Studio 14 in Tipp City, I will also be displaying

 my series of paintings created in what I call my transpoured technique.

The transpoured technique is the process that goes beyond just pouring the selected colors onto the paper. I carefully plan composition and strong design elements and manipulate the color to either be repelled or drawn to enhance color intensity. Some paintings are enhanced by working with transparent colors creating subjects and mood.