“My Space”

“My Space”

Feb 21, 2025 | twodoves blog

“My Space”

Watercolor by John McLaren

2021, Art 8×13

 

As Pablo Picasso once said: we are all artists as children, the problem is to remain one as we grow up.

I will keep trying to rediscover that right-brained freedom of my youth that is such a prerequisite to becoming a true artist. In the meantime, I can only hope to stay healthy and busy and now and then produce something that someone enjoys.

– John McLaren, 2021 

Noted …

worth a failure

click image to enlarge

Fast forward to September 2024…

Cindy says:

“This painting’s ‘notes’ are my buoy.

I’m going to frame this masterpiece” 🙂

Nyla

Nyla

Feb 10, 2025 | twodoves blog

“Nyla”

Watercolor by John McLaren

Art 19×25
Framed 32×38

Painted in 2016, before our studio was built, “Nyla” debuted at the Paducah Woman’s Club Featured Artist Show in 2017. We want to thank Carol Hudson for the commission, and her beautiful granddaughter and accomplished model, for the inspiration. Carol picked out the exquisite antique frame before the painting ever began. The artist and framer worked together to make sure the image would fit just right. 

You can see “Nyla”, thanks to Carol’s gracious loan, in our upcoming exhibition at Janice Mason Art Museum.

Exhibition Dates: February 20-April 4
Reception: Saturday, February 22 2-4PM

See more about The McLaren Exhbition 

Layering and Masking – Examples and techniques explained.

Layering and Masking – Examples and techniques explained.

Jan 28, 2025 | twodoves blog

John says:

These three paintings represent a technique I’ve been playing with for about two years now. The technique involves masking off areas, applying a wash and repeating as necessary. The number of layers determines how detailed it can become. More layers provide more detail, but each additional layer degrades the freshness. Keeping the number of layers to a minimum forces me to find the shapes that best represent what I’m trying to convey.

“Folders”

“Street Music” was probably my first single layer (only one layer of mask).  “Underwood” is a more recent 3-layer piece.

“Street Music”

“Underwood”

Cindy says:

“Folders” was the first painting that uses what John calls ‘Mac’s Gray’. It is his own mix of pigments and is included in his color wheel and palette. They called him ‘Mac’ in the Navy, and it stuck.

Find tips on making neutral tones on John’s Blog, “Many Ways to Gray“.