Reaching for Silence

Oil painting with palette knife and some brush on 24 x 32 stretched canvas done at home studio today

Hans***M

Hans***M a transparent watercolor on 9 x 12 Arches paper finished yesterday at the gallery for JKPP 

Majesty 2

Transparent watercolor on 16 x 20 Arches 140 lb paper of a storm coming in over Virginia Beach.  Second painting of this subject.

West Virginia Mountains 2

Watercolor Landscape of West Virginia mountains from our road trip done at the gallery today.

The Magisty

Transparent watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper of Atlantic storm approaching Virginia Beach started at the gallery and finished at home

Virginia Beach

Transparent watercolor of Virginia Beach done today at Northside Paint-In

Farm Along the Road

Transparent watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper painted at the gallery Friday.

Gifts of the Magi

This year's Christmas painting oil on 16 x 20 stretched canvas done with palette knife at Artists of Grace

Fall Neighborhood

Transparent Watercolor landscape on 16 x 18 Arches paper.

Five Points Cabins

Watercolor done at the gallery today

On the Missouri

Transparent watercolor on 12x16 Arches paper of a boat dredging the Missouri River near St. Charles.

Hostas

Transparent watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper of Hostas from my garden finished in studio today.

In the Keys

Watercolor Landscape on 12 x 16 Arches paper done at the gallery on Friday

The Rehearsal

Oil painting on 16 x 20 stretched canvas abstracted from the Symphony Rehearsal sketches.

Scaffold Diptych

Diptych Oli painting of Scaffold mounted on piece of plywood found in basement. Plywood finish happened to go with some of the colors. Mounted with screws through plywood and into stretchers. I want to try entering it in the Framations show and they have a 40 inch limit so I could not do the triptych, but I still have the other painting and will do a triptych setup at another time.

Maryland Avenue

Transparent watercolor and ink on 140 lb Arches watercolor paper. Sort of a continuous line with ink then watercolor washes over from the street in front of the gallery.

Rough Weather

12 x 16 watercolor done at the Clayton gallery today. It is called Rough Weather and is from the Road Trip pictures

Rehearsal

Grey markers on a Laser Print of 2 sketches scanned and put together in photoshop. 8.5 x 11.  Sketches were from the Art St. Louis visit to a St. Louis Symphony rehearsal.

Down on the Corner

I think this is done.  It looks more done in person than in the photo.  Oil paint with palette knife on 16 x 20 stretched canvas.

Taming the Wild Ones

Transparent Watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper. Cone flowers and marmalade.

Across the Street

A study in grey markers on sketch paper

Hibiscus

Transparent watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper of hibiscus flowers from my neighborhood

Scaffolding Pictures WIP

These are the paintings I am working on. I am hoping to pull these together in a tryptic. Have not started the last one yet. The first is "Tall Man on a Scaffold" the second is "Dancing on a Scaffold".

Portrait of Eric

Oil painting portrait of my son, Eric Repkestarted in home studio and finished at Artists of Grace Church

Paintings from the Road Trip 2013

 "Virginia Beach Evening", "The Gateway", "Storm on the Mountain" transparent watercolors on 12 x 16 Arches 140 lb paper. Mountains in West Virginia, Virginia Beach and Virginia Beach from my Road Trip with my sister.

My Way

http://www.youtube.com/embed/e-y581HdWfY?rel=0

Festival of St. Joan in Cadaquez, Spain

Transparent watercolor of the Festival of St. Joan in Cadaquez, Spain. It's a couple years old, but I just found it again. I am taking it along with others to the NAC show in Ferguson at the Cork Wine Bar and Ferguson Brewing Company. It's a juried show so I don't know what will get in. I am taking several. NAC has a page on facebook if you want to check out the call for entry.

A Note From Norman

Gila and repkej:

Just a technical note because of your generous comments:

I have been painting watercolors for the best part of fifty years, and I have learned a thing or two from the great masters of the medium, like Sargent, Homer and Eakins.

I have also learned from contemporary and modern artists.

Here are a couple of maxims I try to keep in mind when I work:

Don't use too much water. It weakens the color.

Initial washes have to be ( often) greatly diluted when painting the figure or portraits. But from that stage of the painting forward, try to use as little water as possible. Avoid "watercolor anemia."

Let initial washes dry thoroughly. Then they can be worked over with relative impunity.

I always paint with a paper towel in my left hand. Many grievous mistakes can be erased in a few seconds, and washes can be lessened in their density without diluting with water over much.

Try using gum arabic mixed with your watercolor paint sometime. You can buy gum arabic at your art store, or online from DANIEL SMITH ART MATERIALS and other outlets. I'm not a Smith salesman, of course, but their watercolors ( which they manufacture themselves) are excellent and so are their other watercolor materials.

( explanatory article about gum arabic with watercolor):

www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/watercolor/the- secret-of-gu...

I often paint with no underdrawing at all, so that I am free to adjust shapes and forms as I go.

I try to make all my portraits and figures in two passes ( occasionally three), each about an hour long. This means I paint pretty fast.

Then they dry overnight. In the morning, when I'm seeing clearly and not exhausted from concentrating ( this has become more of a danger-- fatigue-- as I have aged) I make a few adjustments or throw them away and (maybe) start over. There was a sharp break-off at age sixty in both my eyesight and my hand-to-eye co-ordination. But some of this can be compensated for by experience, i.e. I feel the mistakes coming and can anticipate them.

I try to work as spontaneously as possible. Nothing is deader than a dead watercolor painting.

Likewise, I try to make certain strokes that are "unanticipated" or "uncontrolled"-- poor terms to describe what is a mysterious process when it comes off.

I prefer the jazz guitarist's phrase: (Tuck Andress) put this phrase on one of his albums to describe his technique while playing, "reckless precision."

Ted Kautzky, the Hungarian-American watercolorist and teacher, put in his oar ( or his brush) with some Zen-like pronouncements:

Don't use too much water.

In at least some parts of the painting , use the color nearly straight from the tube.

Don't mix colors overmuch.

Always remember that some colors are sediments and some are stains.

Use the best quality paints, paper and brushes you can.

Stop when you feel you are 80 percent finished.

Don't fiddle. Be decisive and let it stand. If it doesn't work, scrub it out or throw it away, No "in-between" painting. Be fierce when you must.

( the last two take the longest apprenticeship to estimate properly and judiciously).

Just some observations that have bubbled to the surface over the years.

Writing and painting are drastically separate arts, but maybe the words above can help convey some of my strategies.

In "the heat of battle" as jazz guitarist Larry Coryell says, " You don't have time to think about notes. You just make music. " Which is to remind his students ( and the students I used to teach) that many of the modes of knowing and executing watercolors I have described need to be pretty deeply ingrained and assimilated before they can be applied.

With oil, or even acrylic ( nowadays with the longer "open" time some acrylic brands provide you) you can put down a stroke or paint an area , stop, and contemplate what you have done for a while before going on. And you can make unlimited changes to your painting.

But watercolor is different, which is why it's more difficult for most painters than oil.

Many of these watercolor techniques can be inferred from a ( very, very) close study of the greats, Homer, Sargent, Andy Wyeth, and his son, Jamie, who is also a first-rate watercolorist.

An old acquaintance of mine, JERALD SILVA, one of the most amazing and virtuosic watercolorists I know of in America, coats his large papers with glue ( one can also use acrylic medium) and after it has dried, paints watercolor over his glue ground. This permits him to lift the color completely back to the white paper at any stage and in any area of his painting. His paintings are remarkably luminous, including his darks, and his imagination and expression are second to none.

Here is his web site. Take a look at his work. You may get some ideas from him. I have.

( Jerald Silva website):

www.jeraldsilva.com/art_pages/page01/page01_1 1.html

Your Flickr friend,

Norman

Lavender Blue

I called this Lavender Blue.  It is a multi-media collage made with acrylic wash,  watercolor painted paper, watercolor and ink. Made at Northside Art 5/21/2013.

Conway House Summer Kitchen located in Faust Park St. Louis County

Transparent watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper done en plein air at the Faust Festival. Look here to see the historic Conway house that goes with this summer kitchen www.flickr.com/photos/repke-art/5727668386/in/photostream
I painted this another year at the Faust Festival.

Joao from Martin Beek's JKPP Oxford meet-up pictures. Transparent watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper.  Black line made with watercolor and a sharpened bamboo stick.

Missouri Botanical

Finished the Missouri Botanical I started a while back.

Water Passage

"Water Passage" painted at Artists of Grace on 12 x 16 stretched canvas with oil paint, palette knife and brush.

The Shrinking Box

12 x 16 transparent watercolor that juried in to Framations "Touched By Violence" show.

Piercing Chaos

Final version of Piercing Chaos from the Art St. Louis/St. Louis Symphony project

From the 5x5 show

Jennifer Miller's photos of my entries in the 5x5 show.  Watercolors based on my sketches from the Art St. Louis and St. Louis Symphony project.

Dario

Quick sketch of Dario from JKPP while I was chatting on the phone.  Lowes carpenter's pencil and 6b pencil on sketch paper.

Crows

Oil painting with palette knife on canvas board 30" x 35"

From Death to Life

Made some changes to a previous painting

The Shine

Transparent Watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper from still life done at Northside Art paint-in.

Why

Transparent Watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper for JKPP

The Shrinking Box

Transparent Watercolor on 15 x 20 Canson watercolor paper for JKPP 

Sunset on Lido Key

Transparent watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches paper painted at the gallery 3/1/13

Begining the Journey

Oil paint with palette knife on 16 x 20 stretched canvas from source photo by Theri Repke

Steak n Shake

Transparent Watercolor on 12 x 16 Arches Paper. Where I eat breakfast when I have no food in the house.

"Strings" and "Don Juan"

Two small 3x3 ink and watercolor paintings on 140 lb Canson watercolor paintings inspired by the Symphony sketches from the Art St. Louis project.