PROGRAM - MARCH 4,2020
Our demonstrator today was Rick Mock, a Signature member of Ohio Watercolor society. Rick’s expertise is in painting classic cars and shiny surfaces.
Rick first went through his materials for us. Formerly he used Maimeri Blu watercolors but has switched to Holbein. His color palette is inspired by Chris Leeper. He likes the John Pike Watercolor Palette for its large mixing area and the fact that it will not stain, which allows him to truly see the colors he is mixing.
His brushes were suggested by Bill Vrscak and are Princeton watercolor brushes. He particularly likes the ¼ in. flat and ½ in. flat which he calls his “workhorses”. He can easily make long horizontal or vertical strokes with the side of the brushes, and because they are longer than most flats, they hold a good amount of water.
His paper of choice is Fabriano 300# CP. He likes the heavier paper because it holds moisture for a long time and he is able to move paint over a longer time period.
His water “container” consists of two Tupperware containers, one placed inside the other, rather than two separate containers.
Because of the subject matter he likes, Rick paints very tight, but he sometimes likes to loosen up by doing what he calls “freestyle” painting – small abstracts which he begins by doodling with the brush and paint with no plan in mind. He considers these a fun way to relax with his painting. Two examples of his loose paintings below.
Rick began by wetting the starting area and continued to add color for some time. This was the “fin” of a classic Chevrolet, a brilliant red in the photo. Rick began by adding reds to the top of the area and then some orange to the bottom, which was a reflection of something below the car.
He then let that area begin to dry and moved to another area of the painting. This was the chrome above the tail light which he began with gray mixed from red and dark green. Part of this was softened away, later some defined shapes were added. Rick calls this “building edges”.
He frequently paints upside down, or sideways, whatever helps his hand get into the tight spaces he needs to work on. He commented that this is something he constantly reminds his students about – the fact that you can rotate your painting!
Rick paints dark to light – the opposite of our usual watercolor technique. He says this allows him to visualize the completed painting sooner and it “pumps him up” so he stays excited to see the project to completion.
His demonstration allowed us to see how the shapes he creates make the curves on a painted surface and reflections in chrome look shiny, hard and real.
Below are photos of some of the paintings Rick brought for display. (Sorry about the glare).
Submitted photos and text by Deb Ward and Mary Fleischmann.
