Where Rhode Island Avenue and M Street Meet

Pre-work 15-minute sketch from yesterday morning. 

I've toured office space in the pie-shaped building. I think I saw a gutted floor and another that looked like a hastily abandoned boiler room call center. I used to get lunch in the greasy spoon on the first floor and never once bought flowers from the nice floral shop next door to it.

Where RI Ave. and M St., NW, Meet (6/18/15)

Color as Language

Often, I'll make notes about color and value on my sketches with the intent of later adding watercolor washes or translating them into a larger painting. 

But sometimes, it's just fun to leave the notes without the addition of their counterparts on the spectrum. The result can be just as vivid, albeit in a different way.
 

National Cathedral, Northern View (5/24/15)

Garish

This watercolor is so garish...but I kind of like it because it captures the muggy, unpleasant atmosphere of the day I completed it. I wasn't going to post it, but...

I did the piece over two recent lunch hours. The drawing was delicate after the first session, though I may have set the tonal key too dark when I added the wash for the left-hand tree as a concluding thought. When I got back to it after more than a week (wet weather was the delay), I was grappling for the initial hook but plowed forth without it. I was time-frustrated. And then it got out of hand.... But like I said, it actually is an honest portrayal of the feel of the scene...despite the uncouth lines and over-the-top chroma.

20th St. & NH Ave., NW (5/28, 6/9/15)

 

1301 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Morning. June 16.

I used to work in this building. Now I work down the street.

1301 CT Ave, 7" x 5.5", 6/16/2015

Sitting in the Shade to Avoid the Heat

...right next to idling DC Circulator buses....

The garden overflowing the fence belongs to the Inn at Dupont South. There was a board meeting going on in the building next door, according to a handwritten sign. There is a new pizza place up the street. I was tripped up again with the question, What do you do? I never know whether to talk about my job or my artwork.

19th St. & Sunderland Pl., NW, 5/29 & 6/10/15

Washington Plaza Hotel

Washington Plaza Hotel, Friday, 8/22/2014

A Year Ago

Drawings from a year ago today and yesterday.

Franklin Park, 6/4/14

Franklin Park, 6/5/14

Color

While I don't mind today's gray weather---the light is sharp and Clocktower Radio is playing some good music (some sort of mellow dance music...trance?)---a little color wouldn't hurt. Here are some quick watercolors from a few years back.

Emma, 2013

New World Trade Center Under Construction, 2012

Rain-Bound

It's been a gray, rainy week. Chilly, too. I haven't been able to finish the two watercolors I'm working on.

So here's lunchtime drawing from a few weeks back. It was in the high 80s then. It is in the low 60s today.

Patterson Mansion with Exterior Renovations, 15 Dupont Circle, 5.5" x 7"