[ A Counterfeit Sanctuary is Better than Nothing, 10×10″ Oil on Panel }
Mother’s Day is coming soon, so all my impasto Oil Paintings are on sale 25% off for the month of May!
Bonsu Free Shipping to USA, EU and CA by air and AUS and NZ by surface!
[ Big Rock, Little Rock, 5×5″ Watercolor – SOLD ]
I’ve also posted ten new Miniature Watercolors. Check the shop today – these affordable pieces sold out quickly last time!
Here’s a few of my favorites :) Thanks so much for your support. ~Marc
[ Glacier Fed Lakes, 5×5″ Watercolor -SOLD ]
[ Tropic of Turquoise, 5×5″ Watercolor – SOLD ]
[ Minus One Influencer, 5×5″ Watercolor – SOLD ]
Earth Day eBook Sale!
Today, April 22, is the 50th annual Earth Day, and of course, the issue of the day should be climate change.
Likely, 50 years ago, the day’s founders were mostly concerned with industrial pollution. Along the way we have added desertification, plagues of locust, worsening storms and an annual fire season – all tied to a few degrees of shifting temperature.
Yet – who has time right now to think about abstract future worries? When the right-now is so up-ended?
Covid-19 is showing us what it’s like to be in the grip of forces we can’t control.
We are living through a pandemic caused by a virus – the smallest of things in nature. What will happen when the largest things begin to shift – the ice caps and the seas?
[ Two Million, Two Million, 18×18″ Watercolor – SOLD ]
Last year, I used our collaborative project #30x30DirectWatercolor to paint a series of abstract landscapes, attempting to visualize this abstract existential crisis.
[ The Divide, 18×18″ Watercolor ]
You can view just the paintings in this series on my portfolio site MarcTaroHolmes.com – or – read about the making-of on the #30x30DirectWatercolor 2019 page – or – you might purchase a copy of my artbook The Apocalypse Variations, where you’ll find the more personal narrative presented next to the paintings and the preparatory sketches.
In honor of Earth Day, I’ve put the eBook on sale for only $US 4.99. (International prices will vary by region). I’ll leave it at this reduced price through the month of May.
The print version is reduced as well, but it seems wrong to suggest you order a book to be printed and shipped on Earth Day, of all days :)
Thanks Everyone! ~m
[ The Narrow Path, 18×18″, Watercolor ]
The Imaginary Journey
[ Cold Mountains Colder Rivers, 5×5″ Watercolor – SOLD! ]
It’s been grey and cold the last few days in Montreal. Spring seems to be coming sooooo slowly. But of course, that is the cabin fever from Covid quarantine speaking.
We’ve been in isolation since some time in February – because – I don’t actually go out that much :) I’d been happily staying home painting most days, until suddenly, I had no choice!
The irony.
[ Walk the Alpine Meadows, 5×5″ Watercolor – SOLD! ]
So – as a kind of isolation-therapy, I been making a series of small watercolors.
These are only 5×5 inches. Some of the others are 4×8″ I was purposefully aiming for a gem-like quality. Perfect little semi-imaginary landscapes.
I do start with a found photo, then pretty much ignore it and paint what I want.
I’m finding, after a few years of my oil painted landscapes, I’ve developed a taste for a certain kind of view. A sweeping vista if you will. Even at this small scale, I want to feel the immensity of the landscape. To be able to look deep into the distance. To feel like the mind is voyaging, even when the body cannot.
[ Lush Valleys Laid Out Before You, 5×5″ Watercolor – SOLD! ]
I have recently taken a new interest in selling original art. You may have noticed :) I’m talking about my online Etsy shop all the time.
Partially this is practical – I’m not travelling and teaching any longer, and I’m not doing game design at the moment. (I’m so far out of the world of digital art now, I can’t see going back). So I’m exploring new ways I might make a living as an artist.
I’ve always painted for myself. Using art as a reason to get out into the world and fully experience it through painting. Not to mention, treating all art-making as a kind of sport. A kind of constant challenge to myself to get better, to improve my skills. It’s an incredibly rewarding past time, seeing yourself get better. I don’t play an instrument, but I expect it’s something like that for people who go from clumsy scales, to being able to actually enjoy listening to themselves play.
I’ve been spending more and more time in the art studio these last two years, living with my walls filled with my own landscapes. I’ve realized they really do change my mood for the better. I really do feel something when I can look into one of these magic windows and send my mind on a little flight of fancy.
I don’t think this is only because I painted them myself. I think anyone could have this experience of living with art, and finding it liberating – freeing us a bit from our daily worries.
So I’ve started to think about art in different terms. Almost like a kind of service. What I can do with brush and paint, that might bring real value into people’s lives.
[ Follow the Land up to the Sky, 4×8″ Watercolor – *Still Available :) Along with few others on the shop. ]
I don’t know if you feel the same about looking at art, or making paintings. Maybe you do?
Let me know if you’ve had a similar experience having a painting in your home.
And – I’ll leave you with saying – I’ve listed this series of work up on my Etsy.com shop. I hope you’ll stop by, and see if you’d like us to send one of these Imaginary Journeys your way!
~m
[ The Quiet Land Before the Dawn, 4×8″ Watercolor – SOLD! ]
Past Their Prime
[ Past Prime, Sacred Lotus in Autumn, 10×14″, Watercolor – SOLD! ]
These are Indian or Sacred Lotus plants, seen in October last year, with the flowers long gone and the giant leaves turning into curled brown rags.
Even without the iconic pink blooms we usually see, they’re beautiful in the right light.
I’m a huge fan of green on green paintings. I had read that the human eye sees more shades of green than any other color. I don’t know if that’s just the physics of light, or because our eyes evolved in a plant-filled natural environment? Either way, I love a warm green-gold color palette.
Like the sketch of Thomas Hardy’s cottage from a few days back, this was an exercise in carefully tinting my favorite Daniel Smith Green Gold in various different directions.
I pushed a puddle of Green Gold into the sunlight with Nickel Titanate Yellow, or the shadow with M.Graham’s Turquoise, and aged the leaves with sedimentary DS Olive Green, and my off-whites (Buff Titanium and/or Holbein Grey of Grey), and in the brown areas, DS Goethite (Brown Madder), DS Quinacridone Gold Deep, and M. Graham Transparent Red Iron Oxide.
People say – always mix your greens – meaning making greens from yellow and blue.
But I disagree. I just start with green! and only nudge it a little.
And I try to mix as little as possible – that leads to watery paint. I place rich pigments side by side – so the colors mix on the paper.
I’ve arrived by experiment at the colors that look good to my eye – and I pretty much stick with them. Everyone needs to tinker with their palette and come to their own conclusions. But I prefer staying away from the more chromatic mixing primaries – often you see recommendations for Cadmium Yellow and Phtalo Blue – and instead staying in a warm, neutralized color-space. I find it makes the paintings much more restful.
Ok, take care, stay home and paint, and talk to you soon!
~marc
Playing Koi During Quarantine
[ Playing Koi, 11×14″ Watercolor – SOLD! ]
So, I went back to my Koi fish from a few days ago, and painted him with some of his brothers.
This sketch looks like there’s a lot of accidental color bleeding – but really that’s not the case.
I painted each fish individually, one at a time. It was quite organized actually.
I start each fish by wetting its body and fins with clear water, let it pause just a moment to be not-sopping-wet – then touch the fish with an intense color – letting it flood into the fish silhouette.
(You might remember this is called ‘charging-in’).
Same with the floating leaves. Just touch some strong pigment to the wet-shape.
I like to touch the nose of the fish, or the tips of the leaf, so the color flows from the edge, towards the center.
‘
Sometimes I’d do that twice. (To get a darker color). Like the yellow fish with the orange nose. (Upper right)
Or I’d touch, leave a gap, and touch again, like the red fish with the white bands. (upper left).
Then, after my fish are fully dried, (it’s just orange fish on white paper at this point) – I wet AROUND the fish with clear water – inverting the wet shape – and painted in the dark background with bold strokes of indigo.
When that scary dark paint touches paper, I don’t have to worry about carefully painting around the fish – because I already did that with clear water. I just touch my water and the dark indigo goes where I want. This is a kind of ‘safety first’ approach :)
If you mess up the cutting in with indigo, that’s bad. But If you start with clear water and mess up – you can just let it dry and start again.
I admit it’s a little tricky to see the wet area – you have to look for the wet shine. Sometimes slanting your lighting helps see your invisible-outline.
Any effect of the fishes’ color bleeding into the background was created by dropping Pyrrol Orange into the wet Indigo. Making it look like the wet-touched-wet – but that never happened. There were no accidental bleeds – it just looks like it :)
Fun hey? By letting the water control the flow, you get all the creativity and spontaneity of watercolor – but you keep it under control so you’re happy with the accidents!
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Oh and, Iif you want to try this at home (maybe with your kids) – Here’s an older example that’s much easier to draw :)
~m
Far From The Maddening Crowd
[ Far From the Maddening Crowd 8×8″ Watercolor – SOLD! ]
Painting of Thomas Hardy’s cottage, from a found photograph.
I don’t have a particular fascination with the writer Thomas Hardy, he of Tess of the D’Ubervilles, but – he did have a picturesque cottage.
I’m not even much for sitting in the garden. But I suppose if I had one like this, perhaps I’d be out there, penning longhand letters with watercolor embellishments.
Sometimes I see something online that just grabs me – this place just said – ‘I should be a watercolor’ :)
Another found photo, translated into a watercolorist’s version of the idyllic country home.
Aren’t these the kind of place you’d like to be spending your quarantined days? If there’s any such thing as a nice place to be waiting out this particular storm.
I though this was an interesting bit of painting. Here’s two of the windows on Uncle Tom’s Cabin. One ‘disorganized’ and one ‘organized’. That is, one where the window panes and reflections are broken up into a loose abstraction, and one pretty much painted as it looks.
I’ve always done this with windows. (And any repetitive element). I have this feeling – they’re identical – but it would be tiring to the eye to actually paint them to be identical.
Here’s my advice on painting trees.
Don’t paint any trees.
Paint colored shapes that have interesting edges. Imply adjacent tree canopies and shrubs by making fused masses of green, and slightly changing the green as you go. Don’t let any two green blobs be the same color where they meet. Each leafy blob, a different temperature..
I make all the calligraphic leafy texture with a splayed-out sable round.
Jabbed, twisted and smooshed into the palette till the hairs splay out into a natural rake that changes with every stroke. I keep all my long-hair brushes when they lose their point, and use them for this abuse. They get better with age.
My greens here: Green Gold, Olive Green, Perlyne Green – all Daniel Smith.
Here’s an interesting contrast. The difference between touching rich pigment into wet paint, and touching rich pigment side by side on dry paper.
Soft vs Hard Edges.
My mantra: Soft Inside Shapes, Hard Outside Shapes.
Draw with the wet/dry edges.
Here’s a couple of galleries of the step-by-step process.
Light>to>Dark Value, Thin>to>Thick Pigment, Large>to>Small Shapes.
[ The Wordsmith 10×10″ Oil on Cradled Panel – SOLD! }
In celebration of the April event, Camp NaNo, I’m putting my small series of Paintings for Writers on sale for 25% off!
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Update 03: The last little typewriter looked so lonely there, I’ve taken it down for now. Maybe I’ll be back next Nano with some more word-machines :) You can still click through the images to the shop and check out the landscape paintings on offer. Thanks, Marc
Update 02: The Wordsmith – Sold! Thanks again my friends :)
Update 01: The Great American Canadian Novel – Sold immediately on posting! Thanks very much!
[ The Great American Canadian Novel”, 10×10″ Oil on Cradled Panel – SOLD! }
Well – inspiring myself actually.
I participated in last November’s NaNo and had terrific results. I finished a collection of short stories, which I’ve put into print with Amazon. (More on that soon).
These contemporary impressionist paintings are ideal for hanging over your writing desk. Lending you momentary support every time you rest your eyes. I feel my searching, intuitive paint handling visually convey the writer’s struggle! The quest to make something great out of a blank page.
[ Magic Realism, 10×10″ Oil on Cradled Panel – Delisted]
Just mail me if you’re living somewhere else and we can discuss special shipping arrangements.
I hope you’ll consider one of these original works of art as a perfect reward for finishing your novel, or as a gift for the writer in your life!
Blacks are my Favorite Colors
So – Watercolor.
I was painting the other day, trying some things, came to re-realize – I really like black.
This should be obvious. But you don’t always think about your own paintings. They just happen sometimes.
I was trying to paint some florals from our photos of the botanical garden, as the real thing is closed for quarantine.
Pretty much convinced – I can’t paint florals! OMG. I was hating all of them. Really frustrated with bright, sunlit, subtle colors.
Until this one with the dark water.
This is what I like. Hard edged contrasts, dark backgrounds, and aggressive, direct, paint handling.
I have five blacks in my 21 color travel palette.
Indigo, Neutral Tint, Perylene Green, Bloodstone Genuine, Lunar Black.
That’s a lot of shades of black.
I have very few transparent colors. It’s almost impossible to be subtle with this palette. It’s kind of a blunt instrument. Made for drama, not for subtlety.
I’m not sure if this is good or bad. I’m actually fairly sure, it’s not what anyone else wants.
But this is what my eyeballs liked today.
And that’s kind of what it comes down to in art. You have to serve yourself. Your own vision. Art is inherently difficult, time consuming, expensive, and at the end of the day, for most of us the lion’s share of the reward has to come from inside.
~m
At home, looking at old sketches :)
It’s always a pleasant surprise when you’re sorting out some papers, and a couple nice sketches fall out.
These are from South Carolina. We had a wonderful visit a while back, teaching a workshop and jurying a watercolor show.
Right now, during the self-quarantine, the old life of travel and painting with friends seems like such a luxury. I’m sure I didn’t appreciate it enough at the time.
I hope everyone is taking things easy, staying in the moment, not worrying about the unknown future.
And of course, painting at home ;)
Take care everyone!
~m
One Minute Watercolor Ep.03 – Mossy Falls
So – to be honest, this sketch is just a test of my shiny new setup for recording paintings. New overhead mount and wireless remote control for Laurel’s DSLR, new microphone for voice over, and coincidentally – Adobe has some new software called Premiere Rush – made for editing quick and easy jobs like this.
Remarkably, with that many new pieces of technology, I was still able to record, edit and publish this today! Frankly, I’m amazed :)
Here’s the painting :)
And a few closeups of areas I like!
Scraping with scissors.
Wet-into-damp. (Indigo + Olive Green into watery Indgio + Titanium White)
A little area with calligraphic brushwork from a splayed out old sable. Old sables never die! They just get better at painting foliage.
Citizen Sketcher 