First Quarter Round Up

Yoikes. April already and I've neglected the blog for all too long. I'll definitely try and do better, but painting and life tends to derail me at times. The year has been shaping up nicely. A definite high point was our trip to Scotland last month. As some of the images I post will attest to we had a great time. Most of my family are still in Glasgow and the surrounds so it's always wonderful to get back. Here are a few of the recent paintings of the trip. Enjoy.

Iain

 

The Tron- Glasgow

12" x 12"

 

Buchanan Street- Glasgow

20" x 10"

 

The Collinton Road- Edinburgh

10" x 7"

 

Hope Street- Glasgow

10" x 7"

 

Looking to St. Giles Cathedral- Edinburgh

21" x 12"

 

North Street Morning- St. Andrews

7" x 5"

The 12 Paintings of Christmas Ho Ho HO!

Happy Holidays Everyone! In light of the season I've decided to hold a 12 Paintings of Christmas auction and give away. I will be posting a new painting every day for 12 days.

4 paintings will be awarded at random to anyone who "likes" an image on Facebook or leaves a comment on any of the 12 images here on the blog. Here's the Facebook link.

www.facebook.com/iswatercolors 

The rest of the paintings will be listed on Ebay at very low reserves. These are originals not reproductions. If you get one for $25.01 then MERRY CHRISTMAS from me. Due to shipping constraints etc this is a US only thingy unless you want to contact me before and and set up shipping to your country. Happy Christmas and a wonderful Holiday Season to all!

Scroll down for all the Paintings

 

Duomo from the Via dei  Servi

10.5" x 6.5"

Link to Ebay Auction

Click to Bid 

 

LES Late Afternoon

10.5" x 6.5"

Link to Ebay Auction

Click to bid

 

Dirty Santa No.3

First free giveaway winner

Bob Benner

 

Tracks No. 4

Opelika, Alabama

7" x 5"

For Auction on Ebay

Click here to bid

 

Samford at Dusk

7" x 5"

For auction on Ebay

click here to bid

Garden District No. 1

New Orleans

7" x 5"

Click here to Bid on Ebay

 

The second raffle winner

Congrats Carrie!

 

8th Street Opelika, Alabama

Click here to bid

 

"Mush" an original cartoon 

Click here to bid

To Brooklyn

6" x 6"

Click here to bid

National Watercolor Society Signature!

I was called yesterday by Mike Bailey the President of the National Watercolor Society. He informed me that I had been awarded Signature Status with the NWS. He also let me know that my painting had won the Cheap Joe's Purchase Award in the 91st Annual Exhibition. I am incredibly honored to be included in such an outstanding group of artists in one of the most prestigious watercolor society's in the world. I'm still getting myself around this, but this is a major goal I've had and it feels so wonderful to get there.

If  you'd like to see the painting click here

National Watercolor Society 91st Annual Exhibition

I'm extremely honored that my painting "Thurlow Dam from the Fitzpatrick Bridge" has been juried into the National Watercolor Society 91st Annual Exhibition. The Exhibition runs from October 22 - December 3, 2011 at the National Watercolor Society's Gallery in San Pedro, California.

La Cruz, Puerto Vallarta, and Such.

The freaking Bimbo truck kept blocking me in then I lost Greg. Here's a tour that goes for five hours and leaves at noon. Who wants their eggs? Oh, that tour is unavailable for us. Uhm, a Mexican Fiesta or sunset sailing....interested?

Typical talk around the table at Casa Kaeli in La Cruz, Mexico this morning. The two that stayed up until four are still sleeping and the rest of us have swum, painted, cleaned, all in different order. Noelle sits to my left eating a plate of huevos y papas and makes contented noises. I've finished off a couple of watercolor sketches and am planning a stab at the huevos myself.

fyi- Bimbo is a bread company....

Much more later, but in a nutshell, Noelle and I joined a group of friends headed for La Cruz, Mexico, all staying in a three tier villa with a view across Banderas Bay to Puerto Vallarta from both the upstairs balcony and the infinity pool, which by the way is a great place for a morning, noon, afternoon, or evening cocktail.

I've been struggling to find a way to paint with any results in this heat / humidity and finally struck on just painting in my sketchbook. The paper is thin enough to allow it to dry quickly and I can do a few at a stretch. Here are a few pics and as I said more later.

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The Louisiana Watercolor Society's 41st Annual International Exhibition

A couple of weeks ago Noelle and I drove down to New Orleans for the opening of the LWS 41st International Exhibition. One of my paintings had been accepted for the show and we thought it would be a great chance to visit a city we both love and see a collection of amazing work at the show. Neither of us had been to New Orleans in more than 10 years and although I visited quite a few times over the years we had let that destination slip for a while. We stayed with an old friend in the Irish Channel just off of Magazine Street and as always New Orleans never disappoints. On two points the trip was a surprise. Firstly the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Low 80's and no humidity and secondly, my painting 5th Avenue in Rain, was awarded the First Honorable Mention at the show.

Although I've entered quite a few juried shows over the last couple of years actually showing up for an opening is not something I do with regularity. Some of the shows would require serious travel, but the real reason is I simply don't like viewing my work with any ideas about individual merit in mind. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely thankful when I am awarded an honor or specific recognition, but if one doesn't win, which is often enough, I don't like the idea of that particular image losing any of it's charm on a personal level. Being juried is not easy....

Watching your wife watching you being juried is one hell of a good laugh.

I thought I got worked up. She looked like a little red ballon slowly filling with air. As each ribbon was handed out a little more air went in. At some point I realized I was either going to get an award or have to physically remove her from the building.  Just seeing how much it meant to Noelle was enough for me. She sees me painting daily, she is called on to critique my work, and at times she'd rather be smacked with a fish than have to look at another of my paintings with any interest, but there she was holding her breath and counting ribbons still left on the table. Well my name was called and I went up to have my photo taken. Looking back, I saw Noelle was being congratulated by the people around her and I think that's absolutely fitting. We do this together.

The downside? She wanted me to wear the baby blue ribbon pinned to my shirt.... uh, no.

All in all a great weekend, great friends, good food, music, and what a damned good group of watercolors.

5th Avenue in Rain

Andre and Noelle on Magazine

Higbee 6 x 6 Show

No Billy Crystal or Ricky Gervais, but Randy Higbee certainly put on an Awards Show last night. I think it's got to be the first of it's kind on Facebook. Instead of just posting all of the winners in his 6 x 6 Show he rolled out each winner one by one creating a bit of suspense. For those of you who don't know Randy or this show; it's an open with the only requirement being that the work be done at 6" square. Randy then takes each piece and frames them using his stock. He is the King of Frames after all. 297 artists entered a total of 1174 works of which 500 were accepted. I was happily surprised to find that my painting "1st Avenue at Noon" was selected as one of the award winners. It was one of only two watercolors to receive an honor and it's especially nice to share that distinction with my friend Tom Schaller who's work Venice Afternoon 2 was the other watercolor to receive an award.

It's a real treat to be included in this group let alone win an award. Some of the top artists in the country submitted to this show and the calibre of work is stunning to say the least. Currently the only way to see the show if you're not in Costa Mesa, CA is via Randy's Facebook page, but I expect that will change soon. If there is a web link posted I will update this.

is