House of Delegates show opens today

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 2020 Maryland state legislative session, and today marks the beginning of the art exhibition at the Maryland House of Delegates, in which I have three paintings. The show is in the Lowe House of Delegates Building, at 6 Bladen Street, a block or two northwest of the state Capitol building. The Lowe building is open from 9 to 5, Monday thru Friday, but apparently not on weekends. (I’m still checking on this.)

I wouldn’t make a special trip just to see my three paintings, but if you happen to be in Annapolis during the work week, maybe stop by! Parking is a bit of a challenge in Annapolis; plan on a bit of a walk from your parking space.

Also, there will be a reception at the gallery on Monday, February 3rd from 6-8 pm. I’ll be there with bells on. :) That happens to be the night of the Iowa caucuses — interesting timing for an art show in a legislative building.

Here’s a link to an article in Annapolis’s Capital Gazette about the art scene in Annapolis, including three paragraphs about the Lowe House show. The article misstates the starting date of the exhibition, but otherwise it’s a nice summary. https://www.capitalgazette.com/entertainment/ac-cn-gallery-20200105-20200103-g55idbc7mzdjjg2hujrziho52y-story.html

On the train

The holiday rush is finally over, and it’s time to catch up on this blog. I visited my family in New York, and I did a lot of sketching on the trip. I’ll post a few over the next week or so. This one is of a fellow passenger on the train. I used pen, which meant no erasing! This sketch took about half an hour.

Geoff Watson, “On the train,” ink on paper, about 5” x 7,” 2020.

Accepted to juried show at Maryland House of Delegates!

I just had three paintings accepted into a juried show at the Maryland House of Delegates!  The show will run during the entire legislative session, from January 9 to April 13.  The show is at the Lowe House Gallery in the Lowe House of Delegates Building (6 Bladen Street, Annapolis, MD 21401). My three paintings will be for sale.  Plus there will be a reception on February 3 from 6-8 pm.

The show is sponsored by the Maryland Federation of Art, of which I am a member. I guess it’s a chance for state legislators and the public to see art made by Marylanders. It was a competitive process; only 39 artists got in, out of 250 or so who applied, and mine are 3 of 69 paintings in the show. 

You can see the preview gallery for the show here: http://mdfedart.com/mfaentry/artistgallery.php?event=176 . The gallery is arranged alphabetically, so I’m at almost the very end. Here are my three pieces that will be on sale:

Geoff Watson, “Cherry blossoms,” oil on panel, 16” x 20,” 2018. $750 at upcoming Lowe House Gallery Exhibition.

Geoff Watson, “Golf Shoes,” oil on panel, 6” x 6,” 2019. $250 at upcoming Lowe House Gallery Exhibition.

Geoff Watson, “Pete,” oil on panel, 11” x 14,” 2019. $250 at upcoming Lowe House Gallery Exhibition.

Profile study

I had my final life class of the semester today, so I tried to make the most of it. This little profile study took about 3-4 hours.

Geoff Watson, “Profile study,” oil on linen panel, 11” x 14,” 2019.

Moe

I did this study of Moe in life class today. It took about two hours. I like it!

Geoff Watson, “Moe (portrait study),” oil on linen panel, 11” x 14,” 2019.

Sheba - Day 2

This was the second session of a two-session pose. I didn’t make as much progress as I’d hoped; there were a lot of distractions in the classroom today. But it’s still a decent likeness.

Geoff Watson, “Sheba,” oil on linen panel, 11” x 14,” 2019.

Sheba - Day 1

I started this painting in life class today; it was the first session of a two-session pose. Pretty good likeness already, but I need to refine everything, and I’ve hardly done any work on her torso. Still, a good start.

Geoff Watson, “Sheba (Day 1),” unfinished, oil on linen panel, 11” x 14,” 2019.

Drunken sailor

I attended an "open studio" life-drawing and life-painting session tonight. No instructor; just a monitor. We did an hour's worth of short poses, then a two-hour long pose. I had a lot of fun with this one.

Geoff Watson, “Drunken sailor,” oil on linen panel, 11” x 14,” 2019.

Emily seated

It’s been a very busy September at work, and I hadn’t touched a paint brush for two weeks until today, so I felt a bit rusty. Still, this two-hour figure study, painted in life class, turned out better than I expected.

I should have a bit more time to paint in the coming weeks, so I hope to post a bit more frequently!

Geoff Watson, “Study of Emily seated,” oil on panel, 11” x 14,” 2019.

Back to school

My teaching responsibilities resumed a couple weeks ago; hence the slower rate of posting on this blog. But today was another back-to-school day: Life class resumed. I decided to ease into things by drawing rather than painting. These first two sketches were 10-minute poses. Sorry about the ghosted lines in these photos; I was using thin newsprint for practice, and I didn’t realize it would be semi-transparent, heh.

Geoff Watson, “Gesture study,” charcoal on paper, 18” x 24,” 2019.

Geoff Watson, “Gesture study #2,” charcoal on paper, 18” x 24,” 2019.

This longer pose turned out okay, except that I had trouble shading smoothly. Partly this was because my first stick of charcoal broke and I had to switch to a different type of charcoal mid-stream. Partly it was that I’m out of practice with charcoal and tried shading by hatching instead of just using the side of the charcoal. Still, there’s some nice stuff going on in this drawing.

Geoff Watson, “Sketch of Dakota,” charcoal on paper, 18” x 24,” 2019.

Neighbor's house

I stood on my back porch and painted my neighbor’s house, painting for a couple hours on both Saturday and Sunday. I was going after the glowing afternoon light that sporadically lit the house in warm colors.

Geoff Watson, “Neighbor’s house,” oil on panel, 11” x 14,” 2019.

Fenway Park

I finished this commissioned piece a few days ago, and I’m mostly happy with it. I was going for a serene, happy vibe, because the Red Sox are my favorite team. :) I wonder if I could have imparted more mystery, maybe by softening more edges or making some elements more abstract. But all in all, I like this one.

Geoff Watson, “Fenway Park,” oil on linen, 8” x 10,” 2019.

iPad sketches

I’ve been drawing obsessively every day, sometimes with ink, sometimes on the iPad. I haven’t gotten around to photographing any of the ink pictures yet. For example, today I spent hours working on the anatomy of the arm, and I drew dozens of arms, some of which are pretty cool looking. I might post them later.

In the meantime,I did remember to export a couple of iPad sketches. These are nothing great, except that I drew them purely from imagination — no photo or real-life reference. I think it might be fun to try my hand at drawing a short comic, using faces like this. The second sketch is a detail from a full-figure study that’s coming along nicely.

Geoff Watson, “Sketch from imagination,” iPad, 2019.

Geoff Watson, “Drawing from imagination (detail),” in progress, iPad, 2019.

Gouache study

I’ve been busy learning to draw on the iPad and experimenting with gouache and watercolor, but while I have produced a lot of stuff, not much is worth sharing yet. This gouache study is sort of borderline, but I do like some things about it. The sky dried darker than I expected, as gouache is wont to do, and I had trouble making it lighter by painting over it, so I gave up and left it as it was. Other than that, there’s a lot to like here.

Geoff Watson, “Pool study,” gouache and ink on paper, about 5” x 8,” 2019.

Daily painting #100: My studio

To mark my 100th straight day of daily painting, I thought I’d show you where I do a lot of my work — my little studio, in my basement. When I paint a still life, I often use my easel light, a spotlight on the subject — and no other lights. So it’s bit dark, especially in the evening. I tried to convey that here. I was going for a sort of medieval atelier ambiance.

I’m going to take a break from daily painting now, as I have some longer-term art projects (I haven’t forgotten you, Tup!), plus the start of school in a couple weeks. But I’ll still be posting here, as I have plenty of stuff I haven’t gotten around to showing you all yet. Thanks for reading!

Geoff Watson, “My studio,” oil on panel, 6” x 6,” 2019.

Daily painting #99: Water bottles

One peach got eaten and the other went bad, so no more peaches. So instead I painted some S’well water bottles. (Water has been a theme this month: several glasses of water, and now some water bottles.) I didn’t finish this, but it’s a decent start. Not sure whether I’ll continue it or start something new tomorrow.

Geoff Watson, “Water bottles (in progress),” oil on linen, 5” x 7,” 2019.

Daily painting #98: Peach school

I love painting peaches, but I’ve always had trouble with them: they aren’t shiny, so they’re harder to model than, say, apples or grapes. True to form, I struggled with these peaches today. (I like the water glass in the background better!) I may paint more peaches tomorrow, just for the practice.

Geoff Watson, “Peaches and a glass of water (in progress),” oil on panel, 6” x 6,” 2019.

Daily painting #97: Glass of water (cont'd)

I spent more time with my glass of water, trying to improve the drawing, edges, and lighting. I think it’s better, but I will step away from it for a few days to think on it. I’m certainly getting good practice with foreshortened drawing!

Geoff Watson, “Glass of water (in progress),” oil on panel, 6” x 6,” 2019.

Daily painting #96: Glass of water

It was a beautiful day out, but I still felt like painting glass and water, so I stayed inside and set up yet another little still life. I spent only an hour on this, but I think it’s an interesting start. The drawing needs a bit of work, but I like the light.

Geoff Watson, “Glass of water (in progress),” oil on panel, 6” x 6,” 2019.

Daily painting #95: New view (cont'd)

I made some progress, but this challenging scene still needs work. I’m going to put it aside and come back with fresh eyes next week. If the weather is nice tomorrow, I think I’ll go outside to paint!

Geoff Watson, “Tableware (in progress),” oil on panel, 6” x 6,” 2019.