4.9.24 - Tuesday

Reminder: APRIL (this month!) is the last month before June that I can ship or arrange pickup for purchased artwork.  I will be in Flagstaff AZ for all of May for ArtX, and will not be able to ship work or arrange for pickup during that time frame.  If you would like to purchase artwork and have it shipped or picked up before June, now is the time to make those decisions.  Onto the email…

Cherry Blossoms 2024 Art Notes, Part 2 of 5

“thurs 3.21.24

9:45-11:45am cherry blossoms overcast 26 x 40" - saw Akane!!! - painted with Peter!”

Wednesday must have been raining, or populated with other commitments, because I did not venture to the quad that day.  Thursday, on an overcast day, I worked on a new piece, spending two hours painting with my friend Peter, looking at Smith and Miller Halls from a different perspective.  Overcast days are actually quite nice for painting because the light remains fairly consistent hour to hour.  The rain held off, and I was able to complete a painting in which I paid extra attention to the pattern and color of the buildings themselves, although making no great effort to paint every feature.  Rather than the madness of the afternoon piece, I painted the few pedestrians I did see, leaving some of the white of the paper dry to render the figure at right’s white dress and jacket outfit.  Towards the end of the piece, the sun broke through, just as I was finishing, to create completely different light conditions, including long shadows.  As mentioned in the note, I saw my friend Akane (who works at Annie’s Art and Frame, my #1 recommended Seattle frame shop), and also a few other familiar faces.  A friend from college and former teammate, the person who had suggested I pursue the cherry blossoms this year, ended up buying this piece, and I could not be happier with sending it to him.  One detail I was proud of, that worked out well in this piece, is the yellow-covered fluorescent lighting inside the upper floor of the building at left, a holdover from another age of interior academic classroom lighting.  Seeing the sunrise behind and below the cloud cover was pretty magical.  Painting with Peter made the experience that much more enjoyable, because working alongside other artists is fun for me, especially to see how they choose to paint what we are both observing at the same time.

"fri 3.22.24

10-11-45am cherry blossoms rain, 30 x42", met "nova" photographer”

At last, my 30 x 42” paper came!  I was so ready to be able to expand to my most typical scale of working, even while it was raining on me.  I was laying in the washes of the blossoms, the buildings, seeing the raindrops scatter my paint here and there… and chose to push on, to keep working through being rained on, and see what happened.  At a certain point, there is no “risk” to pushing through such a challenge, because abandoning the piece would mean there 100% is no piece.  To try to keep working on it anyways, even though rain washes away watercolor, there is at least some chance of being able to make a painting amayas.  Plus, the rain was mild, not too too heavy, so I was able to have some of the paint stick where I painted it.  After an hour and forty-five minutes, I was fairly cold, but the work had come out in an interesting manner.  I controlled what I could - the close observation of the color of the light, to try to match what I was seeing very exactly, even if the precision in placement was a lost cause due to the rain moving paint here and there.

A UW undergrad named Nova came along and took some photos, which she generously shared.  She was there taking photos of students in front of the blossoms, a great opportunistic hustle, with small sums exchanged on Venmo for the photos.  This painting ended up selling to someone with whom I shared childhood art classes ages ago, who owns several other pieces of my art.  The handoff is coming up this week and I am looking forward to them seeing the original piece.

“mon 3.25.24

12:15-1:15pm cherry blossom 30 x 42" begin plus photo / video sesh”

After the previous Friday, I was very satisfied with the overall cherry blossom progress, and knew that even if I was unable to make any more satisfactory work, or the blossoms fell, this was already the most fruitful season of my cherry blossom paintings.  It’s a good feeling to have already hit the mark aimed for, and to still have several attempts available.

This piece I began, on an overcast day, looking Northeast towards Raitt Hall, would end up being the final piece I would finish 11 days later, and the piece I would work the most total number of sessions on (four days), and the piece I would spend the most total number of hours on (six hours).  The first day of painting, Nova (the UW undergrad photographer) took some video of me painting, which is among the first times anyone has done so!  It was fun to document the process in a new way.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Part 3 of 5.

Cheers,

David