New Blog - Pittsenbarger Watercolors

Dear Readers I have decided to start a new blog "Pittsenbarger Watercolors" for posting all my new paintings from now on. I have been wanting to do this for sometime as I feel it will be better for people searching specifically for watercolor paintings and since I don't do a lot of trout paintings anymore. I will still keep this blog for trout relating photos and paintings but they will be few and far between.

Please check it out and share it with anyone you might be interested. 

Pittsenbarger Watercolors

thanks and have a great day!

Urban Sketching

The past month I have been slightly obsessed with the Urban Sketching movement. The concept is to sketch on location to capture the world around us. It's suppose to be of ordinary everyday type stuff and done quickly to capture the essence of the scene.  I have been going out occasionally on my lunch break with some other architects and sketching  downtown Portland scenes I add watercolor later when I get home, but hopefully I will get a set up to do the painting on location too. This is a nice break from doing traditional studio watercolor painting.

My main inspiration has come from these Urban sketchers check them out their work is awesome

Gabi Camanario
Marc Taro Holmes
Stephanie Bower

I recently purchased a new "Moleskine" watercolor sketchbook book (see the Cathedral Bridge sketch below) and a Stillman and Birn Alpha series  both are great to draw in but I have yet to use watercolor in the Stillman and Birn both sketchbooks are highly recommended by other sketchers so I will see which one I like the best. All the sketched below with the exception of the bridge are done in the my old sketchbook  made by "Bees" paper its a good all around sketchbook and quite a bit cheaper but the paper is a little thin for watercolor.

This is the Alley by Voodoo donuts in old town Portland

 

South waterfront marina

 North Park blocks Elephant sculpture

 Library

 Cathedral Bridge St Johns

2014 Review

2014 was a great year for painting, I made a lot of progress in the quality of my watercolors but there is still a ton to improve upon. It was also a good year for showing my paintings having several solo exhibits at Atomic Pizza and Rolling River Distillery and two group shows at the Oregon Society of Artist even sold a few paintings to fund all the watercolor paper I've been buying.

Here are a few of my favorite paintings for the past year.

McMinnville Vineyard
15x22 - $300

Spring Showers - Willamette Valley
15x22 - $300

Wishing Well
9x12 - $95

Fuller's Cafe
9x12 $95

 

PCT - Mt Jefferson

9x12 $95

Misty Morning

12x16 $150

Edge of the Earth - Nehelem Bay St Park

15x22 $300

Sheets of waves - Ecola State Park

15x22 $300

2015 Looks to be a another good year of art I have several shows scheduled for the summer and just hung my paintings at  Anna Bananas in St Johns neighborhood for the month of January I have also entered the painting Edge of the Earth for the "Collective art show" at Gallery 360 in Vancouver. Check them out if you are in the area.
Somethings I hope to work on for next year are:
- establish more consistency in paint stroke and colors
- get better at painting human figures in street-scapes
-  and try some portraits in watercolor

 Thanks for looking and happy painting

A few new coastal scenes

I have recently had the bug to paint coastal scenes, perhaps its the winter weather and the fact I have not been on any outdoor excursions for awhile so to substitute I have been painting places I would rather be.

The first is Bixby bridge on California's Highway 1 in Big Sur, this is a pretty famous bridge that has been painted and photographed a lot for a good reason it's really incredible . This was a challenging painting because of the Bridge I tried to capture enough detail so it looks believable but not too fussy, also waves are really difficult to paint and the reason I have not attempted a lot of ocean paintings.

22 x 30  - $400

These next 2 are from the Oregon coast Ecola State Park near Canon Beach and Nehelem State park near Tillamook both beautiful rugged coastal areas after the first painting I think I am starting to get the hang of paint waves.

 this one  will be on display at Gallery 360 Vancouver Wa. in January

Nehelem Bay State Park 

16x22 - $300

Ecola State Park 

16x22 - $300

send me an email if you are interested in purchasing, thanks for looking,

Jefferson Park Cont.

Here are a couple more paintings from my backpacking trip to Mt Jefferson, this place offers an endless subject matter for a the landscape artist or photographer, and I will probably continue to do paintings based on my sketches and photos throughout the winter painting season.
This first one is a loose study of Scout lake, most likely done while drinking a beer and having kids yelling in my ear resulting in a pretty messy foreground but it helps focus attention on the mountain.

This second one is a painting of Mt Jefferson from Russell lake, our camp was in the patch of trees in the center of the painting.  I tried to capture the quality of light as sun was beginning to set in the west. A wash of raw sienna in the trees, lake and distant mountains creates a subtle glow of sunlight from the right and the scene gradually gets darker with washes of Ultra Marine blue  mixed with some burnt umber and a touches of alizarin crimson and hookers green.  I don't generally like sunset paintings but this one is subtle enough I think it came out pretty good.

thanks for looking.

Chinese Courtyard house

This was a recent painting I did for my sister from a photograph she took in Beijing. I think it came out all right but I am not  real happy with the roof texture.

Salmon River in Fall

Here are a couple paintings based on some sketches I did on a recent hike on the Salmon river near Welches Oregon, a beautiful little river running through the old growth forest on the west slope of Mt. Hood.

This is the ink and wash sketch done on on location.

the small painting based on this sketch

This was from a little bit up stream in the morning there was a mist coming off the river I tried to capture it in this painting. 

I have been wanting to do a simple pastureland scene for a while, this painting was painting from a picture of a Willamette valley farm, it was inspired my some of similar paintings by Joseph Zbukvic I think it came out pretty good, next time I will add cows.

Thanks for looking

First Fall Paintings

As the air starts to cool and the weather turns wet its a signal for me to start painting again. Here are some of the paintings I have done so far this fall. All the paintings below are a smaller format 9x12 which allows me to do them relatively quick and with not as much pressure as a large painting.

"Canyon Colors" Highway 1 California - this was based from a photo I took looking east from Highway one a little ways south of Carmel by the Sea, this is one of my first paintings with my new Joseph Zbukvic Escoda Mop brushes, these are great brushes to work with.

"Big Sur" from the same trip as the painting above just a further South on Highway 1

"Russel Lake" - this was painting from a sketch  I did from my campsite while backpacking Jefferson Park wilderness

From the same backpacking trip this is Mt Jefferson as seen from the Pacific Crest Trail the lake in the painting above is located in the valley passed this line of trees.

"Go Andrew Go!" this is a painting based on a photo of my friend while doing the Beaverton Banks and Beyond bicycle century ride, this portion was on the Banks - Vernonia trail

"Ocean Side Beach" this was also based on a sketch I did on location at Ocean side Beach, Oregon.

Hopefully later this fall/ winter I will get more time to do some bigger and better paintings but this all I have time for now,
 thanks for looking.

Summer Time Sketches

This summer I have made it a goal to take my sketchbook with me on all my outdoor adventures in an effort to improve my sketching skills. Its much more challenging to draw and paint in Plein air (working on location) than it is from a photograph you must work quickly and deal with the elements and since I use a pen there is no erasing. The following are a few of my sketches done on location this summer and later watercolored at home.

Clackamas River from Lazy Bend Campground

Unfortunately this was the location of a large forest fire that has been burning for the last 2 weeks so much of the forest in this scene is burned to a crisp.

Ocean Side Beach, OR

this was a challenging sketch because it was crazy windy that day at the beach hence all the kites and windsurfers

Backpacking Trip to Jefferson Park, OR

Fly fishing Scout lake

Mt. Jefferson from campsite

Russell Lake from campsite

Bays lake

Here is a picture of me in on top of Park Ridge action!

Now that it Fall and the weather is starting to turn,  I hopefully will be doing more painting at home. My plan is to use some of these sketches as a basis for a new series of landscape paintings. 

thanks for looking

Art Show at the Distillery

Its been a long time since I have last posted anything, for 2 main reasons 1. its been a super busy summer especially August so there has not been a lot of painting going on and 2. our computer took a fall that busted the hard drive so there was no way to post even if I had been painting, the computer is fixed now so I thought I ought to give an update. The month of August I had the privilege to be the featured artist at the Rolling River Distillery in Portland, a small family run operation that makes an excellent vodka, I got to show my paintings in their tasting room. Here is a link to there site: Rolling River Spirits
 I sold 3 paintings 2 to the owners who are really cool people and one to a couple visiting from DC. here is a shot with me and the Spirits maker himself notice his awesome facial hair

one reason I have been so busy in August is that I have been training for my first 100 mile bike ride so I have been trying to log as many miles as possible with an already full schedule I rode around 500 -600 miles in august (including the 100 century ride), here is a painting I did inspired from one of my favorite rides in Portland's west hills of a old barn on Skyline Blvd.

here is one more painting from earlier this summer, I must disclose I copied this from a very accomplished watercolor artist but I feel its good to do this every once in awhile to try to learn the ways of the masters. While no where near as good as the original I really like how it came out the atmosphere reminds me a lot of a Portland winter.

California Vacation Ink and Watercolor Sketches

We just got back from a family vacation to California, My wife and I got the chance to ditch the kids and do a side trip to the coast by ourselves. Since I was did not have to chase crazy 3 year old boys around the beach I had time to do some sketching. Most of these were sketched on site and later painted at the hotel room. The First Stop was Carmel by the Sea, this was a quick sketch of the view from the hotel patio.

the town of Carmel is filled with art galleries and expensive restaurants it is great place to walk around I wish I had more time there to sketch this is one of the cute little restaurants.

Carmel is also home of the famous 17 mile drive. we decided to do it on bike instead of driving here are some sketches of the great ocean views.

Next was a long drive down Highway 1 to Pismo Beach, along the way we made several stops in Big Sur that provided a lot of inspiration for future paintings this stretch of Coastline was some of the most spectacular and rugged scenery I have seen on the Pacific coast. Here are a couple sketches from Pismo Beach

This was a great trip and I hope to do a few paintings based on these sketches and the hundred of photos we took, thanks for looking.

Downtown Portland Scenes

I am continuing to paint a series of street scenes close to my house (North Portland and St. Johns) and close to my office since these are places I see almost everyday they hold more meaning and it will be fun to look back at them as the city changes, they are kind of a snapshot in time through my eyes. The first painting is of Fuller's Coffee shop, this is classic diner with that specializes in Rubens, hash and other greasy fare this place is one block west from my office in the pearl district so I walk or run by it almost every day.

This next one is a painting of the 10th and Alder Food carts. Portland has a ridiculous amount of food carts scattered in "Pods" throughout the city, some of the best food in the city can be found at these little carts and they are some of my favorite places to get lunch.