Winter Bog and more watercolors!

                                                        Winter Bog watercolor on Yupo 12x12


 This is often the case, I have a subject in mind and I begin painting. The mental image is how I orient the process but something usually goes wrong right away. I`ll labor to fix it which usually doesn`t work out either. This makes me irritated and willing to abandon my 'vision'. So on the painting above, when I reached that point, I poured a thin wash of color to the top and tilted the paper so it flowed down. Then I spritzed it with water and let that drip down too. The trees had now melted into a murk and mostly disappeared. The fractured shapes on the right emerged. I dried it and the thing was finally looking interesting! Now when I repainted the trees, the grasses and water it was into a field suggestive of the mood I was after initially. In due time, it began to feel exactly like the swampy pool I love in Bryant Woods. Doesn`t look too accurate but I pinned down the soggy decay which inspired my original impulse.

                                               Metolius Riverbank 2 watermedia on Yupo 12x12


 Because I had been enjoying the bright clear colors in the abstractions I`ve been doing, my aim here was to take a composition I already knew and paint it in the wildly inventive colors Bonnard would use. That didn`t go far! Maybe my familiarity with this subject was too imprinted. Or maybe they`re not in me? After all, I live by choice in the Pacific Northwest and not in the south of France. Every time I try to be a carefree Mediterranean, my cold Anglo Saxon heart says not so fast buddy.

                                                       Over the Sea 32 watercolor on Yupo 6x11


 Muted, quiet, neurotic and introverted....but not always!;

                                                               Carnival! watercolor on Yupo 8x24


Finally, after four years of intermittent work, I finished my large Yellowstone hot spring;

                                                     Yellowstone Geothermal oil on canvas 30x48


 A young man from Oregon fell into one of these last weekend. Only a few personal items were found, there was no body to recover. This danger, which is everywhere in the park, is thrilling. You walk on a trail and see lots of bear poop and realize the Grizzlies use these same paths! The jewel like pools beg for your touch but are more rapacious than a school of piranha! The whole place sits inside a churning caldera of a volcano. Smell the sulfur, feel the heat through your sneakers! It is a fierce and awesome place.


Heard Redneck Liberal yet? Listen to his thoughts about the Republican nominee for president.

                                                             John Beerman


Here`s a sweet little video of the British artist John Beerman painting on location in New Mexico. No dialog, just some music. Watch to the end and see the unique and lonely end of day in the desert. Just beautiful.


 And should you be feeling sad, go here for comfort. It always works for me.


work for sale in my studio [updated]