My upcoming show!

On November 24 and 25, I will be exhibiting paintings for sale at the Yellow Barn Studio Gallery in Glen Echo Park, Maryland. Admission is free. The gallery will be open 12 pm to 6 pm both days, and you’re all invited to my reception on Saturday from 3-5 pm. Free parking is available at the nearby Oxford Street lot. It’s the weekend right after Thanksgiving, so I know some people will be out of town, but I hope you can make it!

Here’s the front and back of the postcard I’m sending out this week. The depicted painting, “Cherry Blossoms just after peak,” will be one of the works on exhibit.

Cherry trees just after "peak"

Our cherry trees reached peak bloom yesterday, I'd say.  Today we see more green in the trees, and fallen blossoms at our feet.  They're still pretty glorious, though. 

In this picture, I was interested in the "arch" formed by the trees dueling each other from across the street.  But I also sought to convey the subtle gradations of color on the street and in the sky, and I experimented more with the palette knife. I think I'm just starting to get the hang of these cherry blossoms -- just in time for them to disappear for a year!

Geoff Watson, "Cherry trees just after peak," oil on canvas panel, 16" x 20," 2018.

Cherry tree on a corner

The wind blew again today, and the cherry trees lost more of their blossoms, but they still look great.  It was also downright hot -- 85 degrees or so.  So it was a good day to get outside and paint once more. 

I struggled with this one more than the past few.  I drew a few sketches and settled on a plan, but once I started painting, I started rethinking the composition -- adding and removing background elements, fussing with shadow placement, etc.  I think I managed to recover, and I hope the picture doesn't reflect my early indecisiveness.  In any case, the blossoms look pretty, and that's what counts!

Geoff Watson, "Cherry tree on a corner," oil on linen, 14" x 18," 2018.

More cherry trees!

It was a glorious day here today, 70 degrees and sunny, but the wind picked up, and our cherry trees started to shed blossoms.  A dozen blossoms fell onto my canvas as I painted.  (I picked them all off.  I don't think they're archival.)  The falling blossoms mean we'll be past "peak" bloom in a day or two, if not already.  So all the more reason to paint them again! 

It was especially fun today because I got to try out a new batch of gorgeous brushes from Rosemary, which are hand-made in England and yet reasonably priced.  Also, I painted larger than usual: 16" x 20."  I thought it turned out pretty well!

Geoff Watson, "Cherries and bushes," oil on canvas panel, 16" x 20," 2018.

Cherry blossoms along a road

The National Park Service says DC's cherry blossoms supposedly reached their peak five days ago, on April 5, but our blossoms in Maryland seem to be peaking right around now.  (For the NPS view, check out https://www.nps.gov/subjects/cherryblossom/bloom-watch.htm.)  So of course I had to get out there and paint them again! 

This time I chose a more ambitious composition -- a shadowed foreground and a lit background -- even though I knew it would be easier to paint the blossoms with a dark background, as I did in my previous blog post.  I guess I wanted a change of pace.  I also wanted to depict how the blossoms form a canopy over our streets.  To do that best, I'd have to stand in the middle of the road and paint, but that's not feasible, especially with the caravan of tourists.  The piece turned out reasonably well, but I still prefer the single tree I posted on the blog two days ago.

Geoff Watson, "Cherry blossoms along a road," oil on canvas panel, 11" x 14," 2018.

A cherry tree

'Tis the season to paint cherry blossoms!  They'll be gone in a few days, so now is the time -- chilly weather or not.  To make the pinkish-white blossoms pop, I chose a tree with dark foliage behind it. 

I started this late afternoon, and my hands got cold before I could finish.  I had hoped to add a tourist or two for scale, and maybe some more foreground detail.  But I'm still pretty happy with this little painting.   

Geoff Watson, "Cherry tree in April," oil on canvas panel, 8" x 10," 2018.

Cherry blossoms

The artist Mitch Albala writes that colorful garden scenes are among the more difficult to paint plein air, and I think he's got a point. We think all the pretty colors will be easy to paint, but it's often hard to construct a compelling composition, or to depict values correctly. I had some of those difficulties today.

Also, ordinarily I love having the occasional onlooker, especially when things are going well. But today I had swarms of tourists, many of whom ask the same question: "Are you painting?" (I'm always polite when asked this question; I smile and say "yes.")  Still and all, I had a great time, and the painting came out reasonably well. I wish the blossoms would stay longer than a week; I need more time to practice painting them!  

Geoff Watson, "Cherry blossoms," oil on panel, 11" x 14," 2018.