Category: Epiphany
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Deb McCowin
My Mother-in-law passed away quite suddenly the day after Christmas. Her passing was very difficult, but we were fortunate to be surrounded by family for the week to celebrate her life and grieve together. I learned a lot about life from her, and I will miss her dearly. It isn’t fair that she was taken…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 6
In Week 6 of the watercolor class that I took a few weeks ago at the Canton Museum of Art, we worked on a seascape. The majority of the classes were dedicated to a critique period where we reviewed the works that class members had painted the week before, and this was the first week…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 3
This week in the watercolor class I am taking at the Canton Museum of Art, we worked on glazing, and working with negative space. Negative space is one of those things that really confuses me, so I am glad to have an exercise that forces me to experiment with it. Aspen Leaves Our assignment this…
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CMA Bust
A few weeks ago, I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art with my sketchbook, and some pencils. I sat down on a bench looking at a bust, and spent five hours trying to draw it. This was an incredibly valuable exercise – it’s something I definitely want to try again. It highlighted two really…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 1
I enrolled in a watercolor class at the Canton Museum of Art. Last week was the first class. In that session, we covered a lot of the basics about what materials are used to paint in watercolor, why those materials are used, and a little bit about some of the techniques you can use to…
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Farm Road: End of Year Four
This year I posted fewer paintings than any of my previous years. There are a few reasons for this. First, I painted less. I spent a good bit of effort this year on practicing drawing. I tried learning more about perspective in particular, because I want to be able to depict the things I’m trying…
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Proko Challenge: Landscape Thumbnails #2
This is the second post about the Proko Landscape Thumbnails challenge. The challenge was to submit five landscape paintings, each 2 inches wide by 2 inches tall. I started this painting off wanting to paint trees in the distance using wet-in-wet. I tend to do this often, but in my mind, there is this technique…
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Bluebird: #2
I have been feeling stuck in a bit of a plateau for a while now. I decided to take a break from painting for a bit because my lack of progress was troubling me. I then watched a video on YouTube that convinced me that I need to put more effort into understanding construction and…
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Ray Hendershot Exercise: Lighthouse #1
I have been absolutely stuck for the past few weeks. Every time I sit down to paint, nothing comes to mind. Nothing inspires me, I have no intention. But, just as an act of discipline, I paint anyway. The results are nothing to write about. It’s all very ugly, muddy, cliche… just nothing that I’m…
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Great Tree Off Cantongawa: #1
I am trying more and more now to find my voice. I look online and see paintings that I admire, and I find myself trying to paint like them. But, I don’t find much success with Joseph Zbukvic’s silvery greys. I am never restrained enough to implement Alvaro Castagnet’s flare of colors. I can’t get…
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Ray Hendershot Exercise, Fieldstone Building: #1
Yet another successful painting from Ray Hendershot’s “Texture Techniques for Winning Watercolors.” I was getting really down on myself recently because the paintings I was making were all turning out muddy and gross. This exercise helped me learn patience. The more I paint through this book, the more I learn about how to rely on…
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Ray Hendershot Exercise, Clapboard Siding: #1
This weekend I decided I would take my own advice, and paint from the book. I decided to paint from one of the books that I have because trying to learn from my own failures has been pretty discouraging. I’m only about a quarter of the way through Ray Hendershot’s “Texture Techniques for Winning Watercolors”…
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Poplars at An Imagined Stream: #1
I have long been inspired by seeing Van Gogh’s “The Poplars at Saint-Rémy.” When you see photos of this painting, it looks almost drab, and lifeless. I don’t know if the Cleveland Museum of Art recently had it restored, or if the photos just simply can’t do it justice, but the painting in real life…
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Nimisila C-6: #12
This is my attempt to paint this scene from Dock C-6 at Nimisila Reservoir. If you are curious about my previous attempts… Attempts 1-4 are here. Attempts 5-7 are here. Attempts 8-9 are here. Attempts 10-11 are here. Number 12: OMG… I think I’m getting close. So I decided to try to follow the recipe…
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Wave Crash
Ok … GUYS! I’m proud of this one. That means if you don’t like it, shut up. Because I’m fragile. Call me a snow flake, a wuss, whatever. I don’t care. I just know that I like this painting, and I almost never actually like my work. If you tell me why it sucks, I…
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Ray Hendershot Exercise: Birch Trees
Tonight, I painted the next exercise in Ray Hendershot’s book. I don’t know why Birch trees feel like a very trite subject to me – but they do. I think every painting of birch trees is essentially the same thing – masked off trunks with something colorful or dark behind them. I think Ray Hendershot…
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Caldwell Hillside: #1
I haven’t painted in a while, in large part because I haven’t felt inspired by the ideas in my head. There is a photo I have had in my recent photos that I’ve wanted to paint. The photo wasn’t great in terms of composition, but the memory of the scene was very strong. I remember…
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Backrun Exercises
I wanted to explore some exercises to learn more about how I might be able to control and use backruns. What is a Backrun? Call them what you want: blooms, blossoms, backruns, cauliflowers, it doesn’t matter, we are all talking about the same thing. (You could argue that a back run is different. Fine. Be…
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Cloudy Sky: #4
I decided to try that painting again. I was going to try some exercises with back runs, and water, but before I knew it I was painting. So… here it is. There are some things that I really like here, and some things I definitely want to do differently. But, I think I’m done with…
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Rocks at Wooster Memorial Park
I took a walk in the Wooster Memorial Park after work one day this past summer looking for something to paint. As I wandered around the creek, I saw a rocky outcrop about twenty feet up a hillside. Just then, my daughters FaceTimed me, and I waved the phone around like an idiot, showing them…