Friday, July 3, 2009

Bob Witte, Watercolor Artist......First Post

this is my first attempt at a post on a blog. i am largely a self-taught watercolor artist. i first started on the quest when i obtained one of charles reid's first books on painting flowers in watercolor. when i received this book in the mail i was impressed that watercolors didn't have to be the drab things that i had seen when viewing old english watercolor paintings. i must have read this book from cover to cover 5 times and then on rainy saturday morning i decided to go down to our local art store and get some paints, paper and a brush. i was hooked. i became a believer in hands on instruction when i took a workshop with dale kendrick. i could not draw at that time and he was very patient. i went from being hopelessly confused to being tenuously confident in producing a decent drawing and getting the paint on the paper. in early 2006 i was fortunate enough to take a workshop with charles reid in hilton head. since then i have attended a few more workshops with him ( i feel a bit like a charles reid groupy). his patient instruction and advice have kept me struggling to improve in this exciting medium. i would be remiss if i didn't mention louise lundin whose workshop in northern wisconsin on portrait painting was so helpful in understanding the human head and face and rendering it in watercolor. this painting entitled "charles' hat, susan's boot" was recently done after a workshop on figure painting at silvermine in connecticut . the other two, "high shelf flowers" and "recovering in sarasota" are other examples of my work. i hope you enjoy them as much as i did painting them. please post comments if you wish. i would enjoy dialog with others, artists or not. thanks for viewing.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for the explanation of your journey. Beautifully loose. A quality that has thus far escaped me but I so appreciate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving a comment, robyn. i am glad you enjoy these older, more naive, but somehow still compelling (at least to me.....and now you, apparently) early paintings. i am trying to recapture some of that quality by revisiting with charles reid in november. i hope he can re-imbue me with some of his joie d'arte!

      Delete
  2. This was really an interesting topic and I kinda agree with what you have mentioned here!
    tablouri pictate

    ReplyDelete