Watercolors Archives - Bill Fulton Watercolors

Painting portraits

5 Comments / February 6, 2025

There’s snow on the ground, and my art studio is warm and cozy, so I’ve been staying inside and concentrating on painting portraits. I’ve been inspired by the book Painting Portraits in Watercolor by Charles Reid. In his book he lays out in detail his method of painting portraits. I’ve read and re-read the book, and painted all the exercises and examples, many of them more than once.

Reid lays each stroke of paint very deliberately, then softens the edges to make it blend smoothly. He likes to have half the edges in every portrait be soft edges (where one color blends into another without a hard edge). I’d like to paint like Charles Reid.

I find most of my subjects from an app called Sktchy. In this app, users upload photos of themselves, then everyone is invited to paint or draw a portrait from that photo, and upload that to the app. There are literally thousands of photos to choose from.

I’ve painted about 40 portraits in recent weeks. Here are some of the better ones. Click on an image to see the slideshow.

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Watery clouds and backlit trees

4 Comments / January 26, 2025

When you drive to Port Townsend, you pass through Beaver Valley, a long grassy swale bordered by forests of Douglas-fir trees. It’s dotted with barns and farmhouses, many of which make great watercolor subjects.

I like the dark trees in this painting, backlit by the low winter sun. The clouds came out nice and watery, and the road shows the reflected light from the sky. The mass of trees on the left have good mixed colors, but I wish I had done the same for the other two clumps of trees. All in all, a good effort.

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Looking back on 2024

2 Comments / January 15, 2025

Looking back, I can see two things that helped me advance as an artist in 2024:

One was a plein air workshop in July with my teacher Eric Wiegardt. Watching him paint, listening to his commentary as he painted, and being present in the moment were huge factors for me. When I look back on my paintings, I see a big difference before and after the workshop. He helped me become more confident in starting a painting, more bold with my brushwork, and more aware of design.

The second thing was my dedication to plein air painting in the later part of the year. From August through November, I made 12-15 plein air paintings a month — that’s about 3 or 4 a week. There’s something about being on location that I find very stimulating. The scene before me comes alive as I make a sketch and begin painting.

My artist friends and supporters help me immensely. I post my work on the Facebook page for Eric Wiegardt’s students, and get feedback every time. That’s so rewarding and encouraging. Commenters on my blog and Facebook posts are also great motivations for me. My friends at Poulsbo Artist League and my life drawing group are likewise encouraging, and of course Katy and Guy are my daily support group.

There were several things that were less helpful in 2024. I took three online workshops, but I didn’t really connect with the teaching and the material. I think in-person workshops are more effective for me. In 2024 I had three commissions to paint churches. I spent an inordinate amount of time on these commissions, and the pressure I felt to produce good paintings made it an anxiety-wracked experience. I don’t plan to do that again!

Among the highlights of the year were selling three paintings at the Whidbey Plein Air Festival, offering a portrait demonstration at Poulsbo Artist League, and being accepted into the 2025 Pacific Northwest Plein Air competition.

My plans for 2025 include an in-person workshop with Eric Wiegardt; plein air competitions in the Columbia River Gorge, Whidbey Island, and Moscow, Idaho; and lots of plein air painting on my own and with friends at Plein Air Washington Artists and the Northwest Watercolor Society.

Here’s to a good year of painting watercolors!

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The Egg and I Farm

8 Comments / January 13, 2025

In 1945, Betty McDonald wrote a very popular book called “The Egg and I,” based on her life on a chicken farm near Port Townsend. In the book, she describes her neighbors quite colorfully, which they did not appreciate once they found out about the book. Lawsuits followed and snarled the book in controversy for decades. The name of the book lives on in Port Townsend businesses such as a bar named “The Keg and I”.

There’s actually a road called “The Egg and I Road,” and a farm named “The Egg and I Farm.” It’s nestled below a line of trees with pastures below, quite a lovely scene. I took a photo of the farm and made series of paintings from it. This is painting number seven.

For the trees I tried a new combination of colors. I started with a red and a blue (alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue), then added a yellow (transparent gold) to bring out the green of the foliage. I think the overall effect is good. The mist behind the buildings was unintentional, but I like the atmosphere it provides.

Here’s a slide show of some of my previous attempts.

The Egg and I Farm #6

Image 1 of 6

Number 6

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“You are accepted”

December 23, 2024

I’m happy to say that I’ve been accepted into the 2025 Pacific Northwest Plein Air event in the Columbia River Gorge April 21-26, 2025. This is my third time to apply to this event, and my first time to be accepted.

I’ll be joining about forty other painters in Hood River, Oregon, for the opening get-together. From there, we’ll spread out to paint anywhere in the Columbia River Gorge. It’s a great honor to be selected, and I’ll be painting alongside some excellent painters. I’ll have to be on my game!

As more and more people take up plein air painting, there are increasing numbers of plein air festivals like this one. Typically, a small number of artists are selected on the basis of the plein air paintings they submit in their application. On the first day of the festival, each artist gets their papers or canvases stamped on the back, as a way of certifying that their work has been done in the time period allowed.

Usually artists are given four or five days to produce their paintings. On the last day, artists bring their framed paintings to a gallery where they’re hung for an exhibition. The judge selects the award-winning paintings, and a reception is held for the public. Often these are gala affairs with wine, refreshments, and lots of people, including collectors. Paintings are sold!

Here’s a link to the event.

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Try, try again

5 Comments / December 12, 2024

Sometimes I paint a subject several times in an attempt to improve my painting skills. If the subject is interesting, I try to find a way to improve the composition in the subsequent paintings. Maybe I can sharpen the center of interest or move things around to make the painting more balanced. As I paint the subject a second or third time, I feel more confident in my choice of colors and I try to improve my brush work, especially by creating soft edges and blended colors. Although subsequent paintings aren’t necessarily better, I think I learn something through the series of paintings.

I first painted this farm near Kingston on location, and since then I’ve taken several more stabs at it to improve my painting. See what you think.

My original plein air painting, 11 x 15 inches. A little rough

My first studio version of the plein air painting. You can see how I changed the composition by omitting the sheds to the left. 11 x 15 inches.

A second studio version, 11 x 15 inches. I like the crisp edges of the barn that draw the eye to it as the center of interest, but the background line of trees is too sharp. Also I feel there’s too great a contrast between the dark green pasture and the bright sky. The pasture should be lighter, or the sky should be darker.

I made this small painting for our annual Christmas painting exchange at Poulsbo Artists League. 5 x 7 inches. I like the softness of the barn, the pasture, and the background trees that melt into the clouds, but that line of dark trees going down to the right needs to have a softer outline.

My latest version. 7 x 11 inches. I like the softness of the barn, the cows, and the background trees, but, again, that line of trees going down to the right is too hard-edged.

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Painting in the cold

4 Comments / December 5, 2024

If you follow the road past the old vacation homes in Indianola, WA, through the big fir woods and past the Methodist Church camp, you come to a beautiful estuary that is virtually untouched. When I asked the caretaker of the camp for permission to paint, he explained to me that the Suquamish Tribe owns most of the land in and around the estuary. For that reason, it’s protected as a wildlife refuge and hasn’t been developed.

It was a cold morning when I set up my tripod and made a pencil sketch. Luckily I was able to wear Guy’s warm ski parka that kept the wind off and kept me toasty. The tide was just past high, and the sloughs in the estuary were full of water when I started. The trees on the far side of the marsh grass were reflected in the water, making for a good composition. A line of white driftwood logs bordered the trees.

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Farm on a hill

2 Comments / November 28, 2024

Last week I drove to Kingston to paint the estuary, but the tide was so high there was nowhere for me to stand. When I drove by this farm, I pulled over in a wide spot in the road.

Although this farm is near an urban area, it retains the character of old Kitsap County, and even had a few cows grazing. I wasn’t satisfied with my initial painting, so I repainted it in the studio. Much happier with this one.

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Stumbling around in the marsh

6 Comments / November 23, 2024

I’m getting to know all the estuaries of Puget Sound in my area. Estuaries are the places where fresh water from creeks and streams meet the salt water of the Sound. They’re rich in plant life, and fish, birds and mammals thrive in them.

Aesthetically, they’re pleasing to the eye because of the light reflecting off the water and the varied vegetation and interesting land shapes like coves and inlets. Besides that, they’re usually free of human beings so I can paint undisturbed. I love estuaries!

A few days ago I drove Southwest of Belfair to investigate the tide flats. After some poking around, I found a duck hunters’ trail to a duck blind out on the tide flats. There weren’t any hunters, so I stumbled around the marsh until I found a good vantage point. The marsh grasses are thick and uneven, so walking is difficult. It was chilly and gray, but I was dressed warmly. My watercolor washes weren’t drying, so I took the painting back to the car and dried it off with the car heater, then I walked back to my easel and continued. When I got home, I added more texture to the grass in the foreground and some details in the middle ground.

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Where the seagulls gather

2 Comments / November 19, 2024

This is the season for salmon runs in the Northwest, so I took my easel to the mouth of Chico Creek near Silverdale, where the salmon are running up the creek. The air was filled with hundreds of seagulls feasting on the dead salmon that were lying on the creek bank, and the light was bouncing off the tide pools in the marsh grass.

I was lucky to get a break in the weather. The afternoon was chilly, but the skies were mostly clear. A beautiful cool November day.

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