Sean's Paintings

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2009-10-07T16:39:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Free classes in watercolor painting

2008-07-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

Free materials.
New Hours! Instruction will start at 9 AM beginning in Aug. 2008.
Topics for Aug. 2008:
The still-life - painting water with watercolor
How to paint a glass jar of water with a stick inside. This is an exercise in looking closely at the various optical effects that will suggest the object - a jar of water: reflections, refraction, surface lighting, cast shadows, etc. Students will have 9x12" Fabrianno paper, several brushes and Blick dye colors to explore how to depict a difficult subject matter - water.
Topics for September 2008:
Chinese Brush Painting
How to improve watercolor technique with exercises in Chinese Brush Painting. Learn how Chinese Brush Painting can improve gestural style. . Students will have rice paper, several sizes of "bamboo" and Hake brushes, inks and other supplies. Learn first the technique for holding the brush, the application of ink on paper and simplified shapes of bamboo, birds, plants, flowers, food, etc.

Wednesdays, 9AM at the Sunrise Room, San Bruno & Visitacion Ave (across from Post Office), Brisbane, CA.

For additional information about these classes, clickon this link:
http://www.ci.brisbane.ca.us/content.asp?cat_id=240000278&C_ID=240000045

new stuff

2008-01-16T11:29:00.001-08:00

check out www.dontknowpub.com

blossoms on the trees in spring

2006-12-13T17:20:00.000-08:00

blossoms on the trees in spring
Around January, the fake apple blossoms are blooming in Golden Gate Park. I embellished the landscape with a carpet of tulips, daffodils and other flowers. The watercolor was rendered in the expressive style of Van Gogh as an homage to the artist.

8x10" watercolor - sold

with nominal mat

$19

mailto://syore@dontknowpub.com

flower Garden III

2006-12-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

flower Garden III
A painting I did in a famous garden in the San Francisco peninsula. It is more like a garden museum than a real garden. You pay to get in and you must stay on the walkways. If you stay too long in any location, the volunteers shoo you along. The moment I pulled out a sketchbook, someone told me I had to move along. He said that I should pay an extra fee for the afternoon "tea" in which they "allow" photographers and artists to attend. The garden gestapo didn't want anyone to appreciate their aesthetic of the landscaping, but rather to shell out money in their afternoon "teas". They need money to restore the crumbling mansion of some long-gone water baron for the socialite administrators to hold their tea parties and impress their friends. Bing Crosby once entertained the supper crowd there. This building may be the only one left in California that dates back to the 19th century if they can get millions to preserve it. The painting was from memory. Perhaps I will redo this pretentious garden in a way that it deserves!

8x10" watercolor

with nominal mat

$19

syore@dontknowpub.com

Wild Daisies

2006-12-13T17:10:00.000-08:00

Wild Daisies
The painting is of coastal sand dunes with their wild yellow and violet daisies blooming after the spring rains.

8x10" watercolor

with nominal mat

$19

syore@dontknowpub.com

Red & Orange Poppies

2006-12-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

Red & Orange Poppies
After the winter rains, shades of red and yellow poppies cover the sand dunes.

8x10" watercolor

with nominal mat

$19

syore@dontknowpub.com

Heather Field in Spring II

2006-12-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

Heather Field in Spring II
A painting I did in Half Moon Bay California along highway. 1. This farm was near an animal refuge where the owner kept mistrated animals in safety. Unfortunately, on a dare, some teenage punk decided to kill some ostriches at the farm, just to prove his manhood. The birds were saved from one abuser only to be killed by another! I lived on a farm when I was young. Farms are not too romantic if you have to live and work in them. The work is grueling, the experience is of insects, chemicals and manure. Yet farmers still continue to grow flowers so that the wealthy can enjoy them in their comfortable mansions. Unfortunately, suburbia is surrounding these famrs and eventually they will have to go! I was interested in the dynamic of the colored lines that the rows of flowers create in the painting.

8x10" watercolor

with nominal mat

$19 - sold

syore@dontknowpub.com

Heather Field in The Spring I

2006-12-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

Heather Field in The Spring I
I did the painting from the frontage along Highway 1 in Half Moon Bay, California during the spring. The workers spotted me but left me alone. It was one of those breezy days when the birds would become spooked and fly in a circle and then land again. I was interested in the colored shapes of the rows of flowers which I abstracted.

8x10" watercolor

with nominal mat

$19 - sold

syore@dontknowpub.com

Flower Garden - Wisteria

2006-12-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

Flower Garden - Wisteria
I made the painting of a well known garden in Palo Alto, California. This was at a time when they planted numerous flowers, including tulips in the back yard of the house. Now they don't plant much on the ground and the wisteria has been severly cut back; (it might have been removed by now). I guess people didn't like the bugs. Besides, drought-tolerant plants are more "ecological" . The fountain actually worked back then, but probably doesn't now. They had a gardener, but he quit. Another person volunteered and made some interesting plantings, but he might be gone by now. Things changed after they found a dead body in the garden one morning. Now the locals don't seem to have much use for a community garden, except to walk their dogs in it . All this for a dog run! They hold weddings and other receptions for the them in the summer.

8x10" watercolor

with nominal mat

$19 - sold

syore@dontknowpub.com

Flower Pots

2006-12-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

Flower Pots
This was a painting from a community garden in San Francisco in early spring. Ceramic pots are lined up on the edge of a wall. The geraniums bloom throughout the year. I had a plot in a community garden where I grew mint for tea. The community gardeners thought the mint was just a weed. The visitors thought it was something they could pick and a convenient place for their dogs to dump in. When I was unable to attend a community meeting, some members declared my plot a nuisance and plowed it over. Now some other person is growing zuccinis there. So much for "community" gardens!

8x10" watercolor

with nominal mat

$19 - sold

syore@dontknowpub.com

Poppy House

2006-12-13T15:17:00.000-08:00

Poppy House

Based on a place in Palo Alto, California. It is along "professor row", but is rumored to be one of many townhouses of a well-known high-tech millionair. I never saw anyone enter or leave the house when I did my sketches. The house is a small countyr cottage compared to the monster homes nearby. It is t a relic from a far-away place and time. I embellished the foreground with more poppies. The house is still there, but the poppies are replaced with a "drought-tolerant" natural grasses.

8x10" watercolor with nominal mat

$19 - sold

syore@dontknowpub.com

At The Golf Course I

2006-12-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

At The Golf Course I
When I was in high school, I had to go out for a sport so I chose golf. The golf course was wedged between cow pastures. The cows seemed to enjoy watching the golfers walk around the holes. I never got very good at golfing as I kept staring at the lush landscapes of the course. The greens are so different from the alfalfa fields and cow pastures of the area. Today I live near several golf courses so I can enjoy the greenery year round. The seems like magical place locked into a perpetual spring.

8x10" watercolor

with nominal mat

$19 - sold

syore@dontknowpub.com

Two Figures by the Window

2006-12-13T15:04:00.000-08:00

Two Figures by the Window
This is one of my figurative watercolors based on some models I sketched . I added the "DelMar" blinds for the background to give it a contemporary feel as if it was one of those stucco motels with the fake tiles on the roof in the Spanish mission style. Inside the controlled-climate rooms, the visitors enjoy an empty experience of an afternoon "quicky".
This is Desolate California of today. You don't have to live in Maine to understand what Hopper saw. This isn't Maine, just Encinitas, California, or maybet Walnut Grove or Vacaville or Pismo Beach? What's the difference? I cut the heads off the models because I didn't want it to be anyone in a particular time or place.

8x10" watercolor

with nominal mat

$19 - sold

syore@dontknowpub.com

Heather Fields

2006-12-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

Every spring the heather farms are blooming near Half Moon Bay. I liked the abstract patterns the rows of flowers make. The birds take off from the field unexpected;y, hover for a while and then settle.

Is it the romance of the farm that I'm seeking? Or is it the line & color fields I really like.