Radical Impressionist: A Mathematician Paints

My first medium of choice was watercolor.  I loved how the different pigments reacted to the paper so I spent a few years experimenting with this, analyzing the pigment qualities and trying to find unique mixtures of the colors. I began to paint “en plein air” during this period, and using a spray bottle I was able to capture the scene in front of me without the paint drying too fast. The moisture of  Woodstock NY didn’t require this but certainly once I reached the dry New Mexico weather, I found the spray bottle useful. I tried to paint brighter and brighter works and purchased many instruction books on how to obtain deepened color using watercolors. But I began to realize that only with oils could I attain the depth of color that was my goal. Over the years though I still yearned for the feel of watercolor and how as it drops onto the paper unique effects could be obtained. At first with watercolor I was self taught, buying many books. One of my initial inspirations came from Je

 8/10/19: Doing the Watercolor Part I had me thinking a lot about how perhaps to progress.  So i will continue (and finish) my Part II.  However, first I wanted to include a new Facebook post with my first watercolor in a long time: I pulled out my watercolors and attempted a favorite scene.  Some lessons learned: Don’t forget the focal point with its dark and light contest Try again with a limited palette of familiar colors (these colors happened to be available from a old palette which happened to have many colors laid out) Try to get darks without having to go back over them. Testing adding a 4th bullet by copy and pasting the third one: I will look for the painting with the notes and add the notes here. I found it useful to put the notes at the bottom of the painting.  They can easily be torn off.  The image is approximately in a golden mean ratio. If I like the painting I will use a frame 8x13.  Oh yes, I am going to have to deal with glass again!! Aug 2020: We h