The Watcher of Moss Port.

I love the canyons around the Utah salt lake valley. There’s a peace that comes when the noise of the city cannot be heard, and the only sound is the water and the trees around you.

This was only my third watercolor up to this point. For this piece I found a great location up cottonwood canyon and set up next to a stream and sketched for a few hours. I returned two more times before I was satisfied with the groundwork I had created. Of course some liberties were taken for visual readability and although I enjoyed including the mice and fox in the image, these creatures were not to be seen.

Unlike my subsequent work, before completing this image I decided to include a raised gold leaf border. I had recently come across a a medieval recipe for applying gold leaf to illuminations and was anxious to try it out.

The Pied Rat Of Hamln.

I don’t know that I’ve ever spent so much time in the preparation and execution on a painting as I did on this piece. There are some pieces that are meant to be seen from a distance to be appreciated, this is not one of them. I often find myself thriving in the details of a picture, and here I poured myself into the details. From the architecture to the eighty plus mice pouring onto the streets, this was a test in my patients.

In the end I was both happy and not with the work I had done here. Between the struggle to maintain good composition and the requirement to have as many mice as possible, this image has its strengths and weaknesses.

One of the oldest accounts of the Pied piper, indicates that the town lost one hundred and thirty children, my illustration falls short at just over eighty mice.

Lil’ Red

this was made by first staining the watercolor paper with tea, followed by my now typical ink and watercolor.

Jenny Greenteeth

An old English legend of a river hag that would wait for small children to step too close to the waters edge before drawing them down to be drown and eaten.

Rapunzel

Well, instead of long hair this Rapunzel has a long tail.

And finally, my first watercolor, nothing much, just a mouse on a stick. Prior to testing out this medium, I hadn't given watercolor much thought, usually only seeing it in use in seaside scapes and the like, which never really interested me. I have since come to a better appreciation of this medium and it’s use.