Whoa….2020! What a wild ride!

Happy Holi-daze everyone!  Here’s to a better 2021 looking forward to more get-togethers that are now on the horizon.  Above is my 2020 Xmas card of a Santa ornament photoshopped onto my latest painting for a bit of levity.

This year was a struggle on many fronts for so many of us.  One of mine was the challenge of painting this huge breaking wave.  It’s a subject I had no experience attempting to paint in watercolor.  It was daunting to me!   It is energetic and active!  It’s size was twice what I was used to!  Its conception was passionate though… to excite myself as a frustrated body surfer with no warm ocean to play in.  I wanted to express the experience of that point in the surf when I can throw myself into a wave and ride thrillingly to shore.  So it had to be big.

The painting process was so intimidating that it sat for over a year in this unfinished state while I went back to safely painting beautiful flowers and commissions, not sure if I’d ever return to it…. too many vague subtitles, too much scrubbing to make the spray feel dynamic….it made me want to leave my purist watercolor tendencies and go opaque.  But its size and commanding presence in my studio got lots of attention and encouragement to forge ahead or accept this graphic style as a new direction for my art.  Covid’s forced isolation and few deadlines gave me the opportunity to face the challenge, dive in….and ride it.

Here’s how the painting ended up (without my Hawaiian Santa ornament having all the fun).  Does it take your breath away?  The original already sold (yea!) and will be moving to Germany.  Custom prints are available though, on Saatchi and Fine Art America.

Thanks for reading my occasional posts.  I hope you stay healthy,  find some fun and ride your wave in the new year!