Catherine McCargar

Girasoli nel Giardino

2018

Artist Comments
Artist Catherine McCargar presents a bright and lively impressionist rendering of flowers and leaves. They bloom profusely in a garden, celebrating abundance and color. The flowers, dahlias, roses, and pansies, growing so closely together, resemble a bouquet. "I am equally interested in gardening pursuits as I am in creating paintings," shares Catherine.

About the Artist
Impressionist Catherine McCargar expresses her deep admiration of nature through landscape paintings of Northern California. While she is well-versed in a range of media, her preferred medium for painting is watercolor. The fluidity of the paint allows her to capture the muted undertones and the fleeting light found in the natural world. While the backgrounds of her paintings are impressionistic, the foregrounds of her paintings are often highly detailed, showcasing her technical mastery over her medium.

Words that describe this painting: flora, nature, garden, roses, spring, summer, season, flora, flowers, dahlia, pansy, pansies, botanical, watercolor, paper, impressionism, impressionism, flora, watercolor painting, green

Garden Bouquet...

Artist Comments
Artist Catherine McCargar paints vibrant purple flowers cut fresh from her lawn. "This summer, after plentiful winter rains, the buddleia or butterfly bushes in my garden are full of lush blooms," shares Catherine. She gathers a bunch and paints them in an impressionist style, letting the watercolors flow together. Catherine makes a delicate and painterly portrait of the blossoming stems.

About the Artist
Impressionist Catherine McCargar expresses her deep admiration of nature through landscape paintings of Northern California...

Artist Comments
Artist Catherine McCargar illustrates alluring red flowers in a background of white. She captures the delicacy and transparency of gorgeous poppies she noticed in a local public garden. She creates a somewhat stylized arrangement of blooming stems. "It is punctuated by the addition of the buds as they dangle before bursting forth the seed capsules that remain after the petals drop," says Catherine.

About the Artist
Impressionist Catherine McCargar expresses her deep admiration of nature through landscape paintings of Northern California...

Artist Comments
Artist Dwight Smith depicts a realistic culinary-themed still life. "The bottle opener was of my dad and mom's from so long ago I don't remember when," shares Dwight. He paints a bright red apple on its side adjacent to it. A focused light source highlights the foreground, while strong contrasts of dark shadows in the background frame the elements.

About the Artist
Dwight Smith depicts commonplace objects with a sense of playfulness and humor. His watercolor still life paintings appear conventional in their soft colors and composed compositions, but upon further observation the juxtaposition of unrelated items make for delightfully surprising combinations and comparisons. This transformation of the everyday, and strong graphic style, lend the work a pop feel. However, pop art is generally cool and ironic. Instead, there is a familiar and comforting sense of kitsch and Americana in Dwight’s subjects. In a similar fashion to the work of American artist Wayne Thiebaud, Dwight paints food and sweets of the American appetite. Doughnuts, hotdogs, and lollipops are captured in all of their potent delight. He plays with scale and composition to bring out a sense of the absurd, but ultimately his goal is to make the viewer smile.

Words that describe this painting: watercolor, realism, still life, culinary, apple, apple cider...

Artist Comments
Artist Dwight Smith paints a realistic still life of a collection of red and green items. Apples, chillis, beans, buttons, and a spoo...

Artist Comments
Artist Dwight Smith presents a still life of plump red pears painted in the realist tradition. The three fruits rest in white bowls with a little yellow bird ta...