Bob Hague, a Central Florida artist, discusses the unique beauty of watercolor fine art painting and his adventures with the medium.
Watercolor – Portrait
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)22 Nov 2008 at 10:01 am
At the recent Winter Springs Festival of the Arts, I was interviewed by a TV news personality, Christine, Fox 35 Entertainment Reporter. She was kind enough to allow me to take a few reference photos so I could paint her portrait. The morning light was shining on her face and I believe I captured the light.
Detail:
... read more
Watercolor – Venice Series
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)18 Nov 2008 at 8:07 am
Thanks again to Roger a UK artist who has allowed me to use his reference photographs of Venice. In the past few months I have painted two Venice paintings.
In these two paintings I have tried to capture the atmosphere of the morning on the first one and twilight on the other one.
... read more
Watercolor – More Watercolor Portraits
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)12 Nov 2008 at 9:52 am
The following are recent portraits I have painted in the last few months. Some are painted in a very tight realistic style, while others are fresh and loosely painted. What I love about faces is each one is different and I try to capture the character of the person. I believe I am now able to capture the mood and emotion of the person in that instant. All were done from reference photos.
Most o ... read more
Watercolor – Plein Air Painting (Painting in the Great Outdoors)
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)4 Nov 2008 at 9:33 am
The art journey I’m on, in my opinion, requires me to become more proficient at painting outdoors. Painting in the great outdoors is something that I strive to become better at. I finally have arranged my “Plein Air” field kit into a manageable load, and it easy for me to carry all the stuff into the great outdoors.
While I am best known locally for my watercolor portraits, I also paint Flo ... read more
Watercolor – Winter Springs Festival of the Arts - Poster
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)3 Sep 2008 at 9:56 am
I have been selected to be the poster artist for the 1st Annual Winter Springs Festival of the Arts. Thank you Committee Members! I am honored for the selection.
Here is a link to their web site:
http://www.wsfota.org/about_the_festival.html
The event will take place October 2 & 4, 2008, in the Winter Spring Town Center, Winter Springs, Florida.
I will be at the Festival signing posters.
Here is the ... read more
Watercolor - Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)9 Aug 2008 at 11:04 am
I had a good time at the Maitland Art Center pARTicipation event. All were happy with their portraits and they had fun watching me paint.
Back at the studio, I wanted to paint something other than a portrait. Digging through my reference photos several of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse spoke to me in only the way images speak to artists.
I have spent many years on the beach at Ponce Inlet (named after ... read more
Watercolor – A Wonderful Event
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)23 Jul 2008 at 8:16 am
Thanks to Jeff Shonkwiler, the creator and director of Artist Registry, I have been invited to participate in a fantastic art event. The Maitland Art Center (MAC) is hosting this event as a part of its fund raising goals. I will be one of twenty-one artists to participate in this unique hands-on event.
This event is called “pARTicipation.”
Reception and Preview Show. Friday, July 25, startin ... read more
Watercolor – Al the Fisherman
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)2 Jun 2008 at 8:21 am
A long time friend of mine was kind enough to pose for me. He is one of the best fisherman I have ever known, and a character to boot! We have caught flounder, snook and red fish all up and down the east coast of Florida. Don’t let his “good old boy” looks fool you, he was an English teacher. We have had many interesting discussions on everything from English Literature to current events ... read more
Watercolor – The Finish
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)13 May 2008 at 4:11 pm
The nose knows...It is so hard in watercolor to get all the values right on the nose, and with the added shadows, a challenge to say the least! I am pleased with this one and have called it finished.
This painting was accomplished with a limited palette which included only five colors. Red Rose Deep, Azo Yellow and three blues, Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine. Some of the color mixing was allow ... read more
Watercolor – One Still in Progress
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)13 May 2008 at 6:58 am
While many watercolor artists will not lift or scrub to adjust values. 300lb. Arches will take a lot if you know the techniques. While the hair is giving me a hard time, it is finally coming along. Now, I need to finish the face, and then start adjusting values.
While this is not a step-by-step work in progress, it is where I stopped.
Work Still in Progress:
... read more
Watercolor – Two New Portraits and One in Progress
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)11 May 2008 at 4:52 pm
After recovering from some medical problems, my muse has finally returned. It is funny how mood can affect your painting and your urge to paint. I am feeling well and back in the groove; much has been going on lately. More soon…
The first painting is my first attempt at a full sheet portrait (23” X 30”) on a new brand of paper I have not tried before. From now on, I plan to stay with Arch ... read more
Watercolor Update - 02
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)12 Apr 2008 at 10:30 am
Recently I conducted a workshop on painting watercolor portraits here in Central Florida. The goal of the workshop was to teach methods and techniques of painting the portrait in a loose, fresh and quick manner. This method requires unique brush control and moisture control.
Here is the demonstration painting I did for the workshop. It is a duo-tone (two color) painting of my son Andy:
While pain ... read more
Watercolor – Update 01
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)4 Mar 2008 at 9:14 pm
Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted here. Life can get in the way of art sometimes. If you have been reading my blog, you know that transparent watercolor is the media I love. Lately, my watercolor journey has taken strange turns, and I had little time to paint over the last few months. I plan to change that as this year goes on…..and, most importantly, will be updating this blog re ... read more
Watercolor – Interesting Faces
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)26 Aug 2007 at 7:44 pm
Often I find myself looking at interesting faces. While the placement of eyes, nose and mouth follow some standard rules, it is the facial structure and texture of faces that I find a challenge to paint in transparent watercolor. Most often I paint from reference pictures which allow me to make some measurements during the drawing process to be sure the feature placement is correct. Changing th ... read more
Watercolor – What is not to like about Boats?
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)16 Jul 2007 at 7:35 pm
Nautical scenes still hold my fascination. Although I have been concentrating on portraits lately, here are a few recent boat paintings that I like the final result.
I hope you find the scenes interesting too! The difficulty with painting a nautical scene, or for that matter a landscape, is to determine what to leave in and what to leave out! Many times you can just delete things from your refer ... read more
Watercolor – Controlled Blooms - #2
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)28 Apr 2007 at 6:17 pm
Sorry I’m late getting back here but I have been involved in a wonderful art experiment. Since I am a traditionalist when it comes to transparent watercolor, and there are others world wide who enjoy traditional transparent watercolor.
While many watercolor artists despise blooms during the painting process as noted in my previous posting, I love them. By encouraging blooms through new techniqu ... read more
Watercolor - Controlled Blooms
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)28 Apr 2007 at 5:56 pm
My journey continues as I study the faces of interesting characters. My methods are evolving mainly due to my experimentation with what I call “controlled blooms.” Each new painting seems to be a discovery of methods and techniques that are moving me closer to my goal.
While many watercolor artists despise blooms during the painting process, I have been encouraging blooms through some of the ... read more
Watercolor – Sketches - 02
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)4 Oct 2006 at 8:33 pm
Style, I believe, is a part of the artist’s soul. It is just there! Sometimes it is difficult to express but when methods and style come together music can be made in color tones on the paper. Many times artists will talk about changing styles, but they are just talking about changing methods, the style has always been there in them, deep in their soul! The challenge for watercolor artists i ... read more
Watercolor – Sketches - 01
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)29 Sep 2006 at 7:25 pm
When one develops new methods of painting portraits are you changing your style, or just painting in a different manner? I believe my style is evolving through the use of new methods and combining those experiments with old methods.
This is a self portrait painted it a tight manner with some loose and fresh elements. Watercolor is an interesting media that when all the elements come together magi ... read more
WATERCOLOR – SECOND PORTRAIT OF AMY
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)7 Aug 2006 at 8:08 pm
In the course of working on my looser style, I have again received great advice from the many books and DVDs available to artists today. From my studies, the several exercises that preceded this painting have led me to this point in my painting methods and techniques. Each exercise moved me closer to my goal, which I believe I have achieved. This will not be a titled painting, but just a waterc ... read more
WATERCOLOR – PORTRAIT OF AMY
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)7 Aug 2006 at 7:49 pm
This was painted from an old Polaroid of my daughter on Christmas Day. I have titled it “Christmas Snoopy.” This was an effort on my part to become looser in my painting methods and techniques. As you can see from my other paintings posted here, I paint in a fairly tight realistic manner. ... read more
Watercolor Painting - Running the Sun
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)14 May 2006 at 3:15 pm
This is the third painting in a series on the America’s Cup racing boats. The first shown below was a monotone. The second painting I added some color. This painting is done in full color and I think you can almost feel the wind and smell the salt spray. ... read more
Watercolor – Running Hard
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)27 Apr 2006 at 9:16 am
One good painting leads to another. I really enjoyed painting the America’s Cup monotone painting below. I had two other sketches that began to call me. Since I had three good sketches, I painted the second one shown here that I call “Running Hard.” True it is not a monotone, because there are apparent blues and light tones of purple.
I hope you can feel the salt spray! ... read more
Watercolor Painting - Beating to Wind
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)19 Mar 2006 at 9:12 pm
Monotone paintings can challenge the artist to insure values (light and dark tones) are correctly stated. I entered a recent open project with the Art Café Network which required a monotone painting. It was a challenge because I rarely paint monotones. Since the America’s Cup races are coming up, and they are going through the elimination process, I though this would be a good subject. This ... read more
Watercolor - Morning Surf
by noreply@blogger.com (Bob)7 Feb 2006 at 6:29 pm
My goal in this painting was to transport the viewer off on a mini-vacation, at least for a few seconds to the beach. I believe I have achieved that goal, and I hope you enjoy the painting. - Bob ... read more