Art School, winter quarter 2026.

This quarter I'm taking Design 1 (meh) and watercolor. I started by creating a space in which to do watercolors, since you generally paint them flat. 

 It's tucked into the corner in my studio, next to my computer desk. 

Fittingly, that table on the right is my mother's kitchen table. I feel good in this space, and close to her. You can see in the middle where I have markers organized - those are specifically water-soluable markers, and in the little tiny flat drawers are graphite, pastels, pastel pencils, charcoal, watercolor pencils, colored pencils, and permanant markers, all neatly organized. 

The shelves are shoe racks with the middle shelf taken out. The stool is a "leaning stool" so that you aren't putting all your weight on your butt. You can see my porcelain watercolor palette under one of the shelves, and the double porcelain water container on the right. 

I love this space. I love spending time in it. 

I bought a couple of Baohong blocks: Artist-grade and academy grade. They're both great. I use blocks because I find "stretching" watercolor paper tedious and time-consuming. At most, I'll tape watercolor paper that's loose to the table to control the buckling that can occur after putting a lot of moisture on the paper. 

We had to do a color wheel, of course. Of course, of course. You must always do a color wheel and a value study in every college-level painting class.  

 value study: boot. 

I have a folding, water-proof palette for watercolor that I use at school. I've had watercolor supplies for a very long time, but have been afraid to really get into it because it's all about letting go and letting the paint do what it wants to do. Eek!

I purchased some Fuumuui brushes, but also had some Escoda and Silver brushes already. 

 this was my initial palette. I've changed it now, switching as I have been doing to quinacridones and related pigments, phthalo blue green shade and phthalo green blue shade,

indacridone and anthroquinone blues.

First assignment,: Still life. I did this twice, not satisfied with the first result. 

 

I've messed around on my own and done some stuff. I joined some social media watercolor groups, and try to do some of their "weekly challenges." 

 watercolor and micron pen.

 trees in fog, watercolor 

 steller's jay - i think the eye is too far up in his head. 

 "stained glass" challenge. Finished with watercolor marker. 

Latest: a landscape. I have to do this over because i totally ruined the sky. 

I've been so encouraged by how much I've enjoyed this that I plurged and bought this little number, again by Fuumuui:

VERY pleased with this little kit. The brush in the holder has about a size 2 round brush, a size 4 or 5 round, and one of the covers has a graphite tip for sketching. I don't know how long the graphite tip will last, but that's okay because I've also got some graphite "forever pencils" to take with me.

I like making my own pans from tubed watercolors. On the right, you see the brush washing cup. There is a clean water container on the top right, next to a sponge for dabbing extra water from your brush. It's held shut with magnets, and has an adjustable little back to hold paper that folds all the way back. 

It came with a clip for holding your paper, but I'm pretty sure I'll be purchasing a 5x7" watercolor block once I've used up all my 5x7" watercolor journals and field books. 

Design I I've found to be somewhat tedious. So far we've been focused on designing elements to a card game which has a "wild west" theme. We did a collage for the "board"

and I was assigned to create cards for animals:

We're really only allowed to use guache, which I'm not a fan of. It reminds me of that cheap paint we used in grade school. It crumbles to a powder when dry. 

And that's a wrap-up of month 1 of the winter quarter of art school. Next quarter I'll be taking Drawing II and Ceramics I. 

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Sea Stacks

 Just after the winter holidays we took a drive out to the Pacific Coast of the Olympic Peninsula, to see some sea stacks. Amazing views. I took a ton of pictures, went back to my studio, and mounted a 24x30" cradled board on my newly-acquired Artristic Evolve.  

As I usually do, I painted an acrylic transparent earth yellow as a ground, 

and drew in the picture with white chalk. 

I changed the composition just a bit, running more water through the foreground. 

Next, I laid in the sky with quick-dry titanium white, and a touch of phthalo 

torquoise, increasing the phthalo torquoise as I got closer to the earth. 

Then I mixed into the leftover sky some quinacridone magenta, for the distant stacks.  

I always do my skies first, because I then save the leftover sky color into whatever 

else I'm painting, creating some color harmony. 

I started on the rocks with a mixture of raw sienna, quinacridone gold, 

and mixed into that varying amounts of quinacridone magenta and anthroquinone blue

I've been working gradually on shifting my palette toward high-lightfast, 

synthetic and non-toxic pigments, partly because I have a septic system and 

don't want to dump heavy metals like cadmium and cobalt into it. 

Also, they have really high chroma, meaning that a little goes a long way.  

I've focused mainly on quinacridone and related pigments, and phthalos. 

It's been a learning journey. They are tricky to work with and you can wind

up with some really weird color mixes. 

Back at my panel, I started laying in some of the optical mixing 

in the sea - it is almost violet where the water is shallow and the 

sand shows through. I also mixed a color for the exposed sand on the left.

I laid i more blue around the ocean parts. 

Moving back and forth with my palette knife between varying shades of blue 

to get that optical mix I've been chasing. 

Darker blue for the stack's shadow on the right

I let it sit for a couple days while I decided whether I wanted the trees on top. 

In the end, I decided to put them there because they provide scale for the outcropping.

Although I didn't photograph it, I taped the back inch of the sides so that the 

composition wraps around the edges about a centimeter. 

Then I put shadows on the sides of the trees away from the sun

And now I'm done!

Later, I did a watercolor version (with micron pen): 

...

My studio.

 In the back of the house where I live now in Washington the former owner fully enclosed and remodeled a 3 car garage to make it into living quarters for a live-in care-taker. It has a "bar" sink and its own heat source, two exterior doors and an ADA compliant bathroom. 

I suppose I could have made it into a therapy office, but we had a better idea. 

We divided it in half. One half is for making sure I have no excuse not to work out. Workout equipment, yoga mat, etc. 

The other half, though. 

That's where the magic is. 

 On the left is my eight+ foot, counterweight easel, built for me by my woodworker father-in-law from maple. 

These are the plans for this easel: Bob Perrish, Artist Easel Plans.

The add-on is the Artristic Evolve, which allows me to mount a panel, be able to paint on the sides and spin it around to reach are areas. I ordered it from Australia, and they were beyond friendly and accomodating, given the insane tariffs. We each chipped in to cover the customs cost. 

The blue shop towels are attached with a bungie cord, and a light is clipped to the easel since I tend to shadow it when I'm standing in front.

Next to the easel is a shop cart, which I'm going to trade to Himself for a new taboret as soon as he makes me one :-) The top, shallow drawer is full of brushes, knives, other painting tools, as well as a pair of pliers I keep in hope that I won't keep using my teeth to open paint tubes.  

On the top, just barely visible to the right of the palette box, is an air quality indicator. I get a warning if things get hinky. 

On top is a shallow shadow box. Inside that is my palette. This allows me to enclose the huge 20x32 palette and hopefully keep the paint wet. 

Above the shop cart is a mixing chart I made for the palette I'm currently using, which consisists of indanthrene blue, anthroquinone blue, phthalos, quinacridones, all non-toxic because septic system. However, little of it goes down the drain. Most of it is wiped on blue shop towels that dry, and then are thrown away. 

Across from the easel is a rack for panels - I'll add a picture later. Along that wall is also a computer desk with a drawing pad, and next to that, a watercolor/drawing station. 

The table on which I do watercolor is my mother's table. I love being in this space.

While my paintings are curing I have then mounted on a STAS gallery hanging system. This way I don't have to keep making holes in the wall. 

I'll add more to this to show more of the studio as soon as I clean it up first. :)

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