Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I have been following the work of Alvaro Castagnet for several years and I decided to recreate one of his paintings to see how much I could learn. I found myself studying several different things so I will discuss them in no particular order. Alvaro's passion for painting is obvious in all his work. He was quoted for saying "If I am not sure the painting is working I just start painting faster." That statement not only shows a lot of

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. Every Summer I have plein air watercolor classes in gardens here in the Denver area. Flowers, trees, ponds, people enjoying the parks, pets, and artists capturing everything in paint. Plein air painting, out doors on location is it's own reward and one of the fastest way to learn. Fresh air, excellent subject matter and the fellowship of other artists is a sublime combination. This little painting was done in my sketchbook in Washingt

Mixed Media Painting by Dennis Pendleton. This is a large monotype, 30 x 40 inches, that I actually painted in less than 5 minutes. I was at Hand Graphics Print Shop in Santa Fe with my artist friend Rod Goebel and I had been watching him paint monotypes all morning. That afternoon he told me to paint one but I only had two minutes. The day before we had talked about a process where you clear your mind then paint in a meditative state and that is what I wanted to do. I quick

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. When I was an art student at The Ohio State University, Henry Moore was one of my heroes. I was fascinated with how he created human figures with volume, form, and the total absence of details. I realized that if I reduced things to simple shapes in my paintings I could eliminate unnecessary details. This is something I have continued to work on throughout my painting career. I also discovered that the same art principles worked in wh

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I went up into the mountains to paint with a friend and this is the result. Plein air painting is always an educational experience and one that I enjoy very much. We walked around for a while looking at different settings and then decided to set up in the coldest place we could find. Go figure. Once we started painting I forgot about the cold and concentrated on getting some painting done before my water supply froze. First I painted

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. When you ride a vaporetto, a Venetian public water bus, on the Grand Canal in Venice you pass timeless grand palazzi's and this is one of my favorites. The constant motorized boat traffic on the Grand Canal is damaging to these palazzi's and the Venetian craftsmen are constantly redoing all the buildings, bridges, and walkways. When they finish one it is strikingly handsome and yet still has that old world charm. This one is ready for