Southwest Abstractions: Watercolors

"Let the water do the work," words offered by Santa Fe artist and mentor Mary Bonkemeyer, have proven to be an important lesson in watercolor painting.  As Mary often cautioned, an artist should be open to the "unintended consequences" and "nuances" of the water doing the work.  Santa Feans like to boast that we enjoy as many as 340 days of sun each year.  In these watercolors, I have tried to capture the sun wherever I could find it --reflecting off rooftops, lakes, snow-capped mountains and garden walls.  

Honeysuckle Clouds, Acrylic on canvas,

40 x 30, 2018 

Spanish Village, acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12, 2018

Firecracker Cactus

Acrylic on canvas, 

10 x 10, 2018 SOLD

Snow Country 雪国

Watercolor, 12 x 16, matted, 2018 See more Japanese-inspired works on my Romantic Abstractions page.

Juan Miguel, watercolor, 12 x 16 matted, 2018 See more from my Border Kids series on the watercolor page.

02/10/18 Cubist Abstractions in Collage. See full series on Mixed Media page.

01/05/17 Politically-inspired "Preserving Democracy" series. See full series on Social/Political Mixed Media page.

Check out Bonnie's Blog for News, Techniques, Inspiration

05/27/16 Old World Abstractions -- new works in collage.

01/13/16 Richard Diebenkorn-Inspired Art

03/29/15 Art Accepted in 2015 Juried Show of Santa Fe Historical Society

10/04/14 Pure Poetry: How Poetry Can Inspire Art

9/05/14 Experimenting with Acrylic Mediums

6/7/14 Der Blaue Reiter Collection, Munich

4/14/14 Light-Inspired Art: Small Jewels

1/23 Prismatic Effects of Water-Based Media

1/05/14  Using Oil Sticks to Create Dramatic Effects

10/31/13 On Studying Other Artists

10/19 Unintended Consequences Using Water-based media

10/12 Painting the Seasons of New Mexico

8/31 Composition: The Arrangement of Contrasting Forms

7/31 New Mexico: A Painter's Paradise

7/17 Intensifying Watercolor Effects

6/02 Creating Atmosphere with Glazes

6/01 The Photography/Painting Debate

5/25 Capturing Fleeting Light on a Garden Wall

And more.....