Very Inspired By John Salminen!

I was very inspired by John Salminen's lecture. I don't want to paint like him,

 but he motivated me to paint the best I can. 

Catherine Darling Hostetter

This past week, I attended the Utah Watercolor Society meeting where the guest artist was John Salminen. If you are not familiar with his work, it is very detailed and he is a fabulous watercolorist. Often times at our meetings, a guest artist will demonstrate by painting a piece. Because of the nature of John's approach to watercolor - often days of drawing first and then days of painting, he lectured on his work instead.

I suppose some people might have been disappointed that he didn't actually paint, but I was not unhappy at all with his presentation. Not one bit! He was very good at explaining some of his techniques and how he came to paint the way he does. It left me feeling very inspired. I love watercolor, but have often ventured into the less transparent medium of acrylic. For subject matter I have focused a lot of my art on the whimsical (as you can see if you've read my blog at all!) However, I love many artist's work and the interpretation of their world, which is a more realistic view than I often portray in my art.

I decided for my next project to paint more realistically and do it in watercolor. The last two months I have been focusing on painting very small - 3.5" x 2.5" art cards. It's been a good exercise, and I will continue to paint them. The lovely thing about John Salminen's work was how he rendered scenes that were realistic, yet very much displayed the beauty of the watercolor medium. He is a very talented man!

Yesterday I painted Mr. Sheep, a sussex sheep. It's not a street scene or detailed like Mr. Salminen's, but it is more realistic and very watercolor-ish. (Is that a word?) It is a start for me. I am not much of a landscape or street scene painter, I enjoy people and animals. So that's where I began. But who knows where this project will take me?

To conclude my last project of painting art cards, I am posting three that I recently finished.

"In the Iris Garden"

I painted these cards in watercolor and 

watercolor pencil and wc markers.

 "Poppy Garden Girls"

"Waiting For a Party"

For the next couple of months, I will be posting my "Inspired by John Salminen" watercolor project, and I hope you will come back and comment. If you would like to know more about John Salminen here is a link to his website: John Salminen

It will be interesting to me to see how this project will influence how I paint. Life is about learning and changing, improving and enjoying!