Your favorite movie here

Your favorite movie here, 7 x 9½" watercolor

Fast forward to North Carolina and to spring. Finally, the weather was such on Tuesday that I could get in some plein air painting. This is the third watercolor I did that day. The Rialto is Raleigh’s most popular theater, maybe its most popular theater, period. I have sold every painting I have done of it. In 2008, I put a not-so-subliminal title in the marquis. When the movie Words and Pictures came around, I painted the theater, including movie title, mostly because I liked the name of the movie so much. I don’t know who bought the watercolor, but when someone saw it had sold, they asked me to paint it again on commission. His daughter had been proposed to the night she and her future husband attended the movie and had become engaged.

So, the name of this one is Your Favorite Movie Here. I am willing to put the title in upon request by the person who buys the painting.

View from a window

Looking Back at Kelley and Mack’s, 7 x 9½" watercolor

If I had known what crummy weather we would be having in Carolina in March, I may have chosen this month to go to California. Turns out, the weather was largely the same, except there was possibly more rain in what is supposed to be “sunny” California. I experienced a couple of perfect days to stay indoors. Kelley’s house included a lovely view of the backyard which had in it a fabulous Jacuzzi hot tub. On a sunnier day, I managed to squeeze in a watercolor of her house. Paintings like these make good host gifts when I travel. Kelley proved to be the ultimate host on my trip.

Haghighi Home, 7 x 9½" watercolor

It's In the Details

Mission San Juan Capistrano, 9 x 7½" watercolor

Where would we be without our phones to tell us what day we were where? After painting Hidden House Coffee in San Juan Capistrano, I moved my car, so as not to overstay my welcome in the free lot, and slipped over to Mission San Juan Capistrano. Sitting outside a Starbucks, I painted this view of the entry to the landmark mission. Paintings in this style beg for details. The person who introduced me to calligraphic watercolors, Frank Webb, was a former student of Watercolor Great Edgar Whitney. It is difficult for me to remember which is a Webb quote and that which Webb pulled from his large collection of Whitney quotes. Speaking of calligraphic watercolors, “It is not about the nouns; it’s about the adjectives” is one of my favorites. Subject matter with more adjectives than this scene offered would have made for a better calligraphic watercolor.