Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. This is another page in my sketchbook from the workshop in France. The castle where we stayed was such an interesting subject with its location on the Cote d'Azur. I was intrigued by this spot because of the tree growing up inside the wall and the handsome tower. It was a misty morning with an occasional light shower and I was partly protected up against the wall. There were three of the big potted plants and I used one as a table for

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I just returned to Denver from my workshop in Southern France sponsored by the Art Students League of Denver and this is the demonstration I did on the first day. We talked about vignettes and how the colors bleed out before they reach the borders of the watercolor paper. The idea is to make an interesting composition with the edges of the paint and the negative shapes. I painted on my 6 x 9 inch Hahnemuhle sketchbook with toned paper

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

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I found a photograph of these fishing shacks along the shore in New England and decided to paint it with a few changes. First I look for what is unnecessary and should be left out. There was a third fishing shack and I liked the composition better with just these two. Photo's show the dark values darker than reality and the area under the shacks and along the shore was to dark. There was a barely visible large rock which I lightened a

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I have been working more in my sketchbooks in preparation for my upcoming workshop in France. My sketchbook is a Hahnemuhle 6 x 9 inches with cold press watercolor paper. We finally had our first snow in Denver and I raced downtown to gather material for paintings. I love the wet snow which sticks to everything, streets, trees, utility poles, buildings, and vehicles. It also hides so many unnecessary details and helps me simplify. I h

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I teach an Introduction To Watercolor Class at the Art Students League of Denver and this is one of the demonstrations that I did for the class. It is one of my favorite classes because the students learn techniques and fundamentals that will save them countless hours of confusion and frustration. I get the students painting right away because I sincerely believe that they can learn faster and have more fun painting things rather than

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I painted this Taos farm a few years ago and recently found some old photo's and decided to do it again. This time I used rough watercolor paper so that I could build more texture to create a different mood. I also rearranged a few things and changed some values to emphasize different areas. The rough paper did exactly what I wanted. When I dragged my brush full of paint over lighter dry washes, it created the dry brush textures I was

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. Every summer I paint in different gardens in Denver and then when the weather changes I return to my studio and work on larger paintings inspired by those plein air garden studies. These are much more than just larger versions because I take different flowers from different paintings and arrange them as I see fit. My memory and imagination contribute quite a bit to these finished large floral paintings and I decided to create my own b

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. Every year in May I teach a Watercolor Workshop in Taos New Mexico and sometimes we paint at the iconic Saint Francis Mission. The church has been painted by so many artists including Georgia O'Keeffe and it is a magnificent building with a romantic history. There is a narrow road that circles the mission and on the other side of the road I found this dilapidated adobe structure. It interested me because of its undulating lines, inter

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. One of my students showed me a photograph that she wanted to paint so we decided to work on it together. It held special memories for her so we couldn't deviate from the photo very much. With all the details in the flowers I thought it was important to keep the sky simple and choosing a blue gray helped to create a mood of a misty New England Day. Paintings should inspire thoughts or tell a story and, when I look at the two empty Ad

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. The poet Eugene Field lived in Denver when he wrote the the poem Wynken, Blynken ansd Nod and his house is now located in Washington Park in Denver Colorado. After his death the house was purchased by Molly Brown and donated to Denver. It was used as a library for a while and now sits proudly in the park adjacent to this statue of the three children in the poem who sailed off at night in a wooden shoe. I have long admired this statue a

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. Venice, Italy is a dream place for artists especially watercolorists. The historic old buildings that rise up out of the canals with their reflections in the water are an endless inspiration. For this painting, my attraction was the light and shadow on the handsome facades. To complete the composition I added the gondola with the young gondolier. The red trim on the gondola is the richest color in the painting and it is placed next to

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I chose this painting for my Sunday email because I wanted to talk about color schemes and how to use them in your paintings. A color wheel is really an important tool for an artist and, on the backside, it explains different color schemes such as complimentary, split complimentary, analogous, triad, and monochromatic. These are useful because if you use one of them the colors in your painting will work well together. For this paintin

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. One of the most exciting things I have ever done as an artist is when I was in Venice for Winter Carnival. The costumes were spectacular, many of which had been handed down from generation to generation. They were everywhere, on the bridges, in Saint Marks Square, at the opera, in gondolas, and restaurants and I was overwhelmed with the feeling of walking around in a dream.   Many of the costumes were of players from different operas

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendletone. When I moved from Columbus, Ohio to Steamboat Springs, Colorado I saw aspen trees for the...

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. In Paris, there is a walking bridge that is a perfect set up for painting. No traffic and a...

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I was thinking about Vincent Van Gogh and how he died to early and never knew how his paintings...

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. Sketchbooks are a wonderful way to put down ideas without worrying about finished paintings....

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I am always searching for interesting interiors to paint and this is the lobby of the Oxford...