Gouache on Paper.

2018—Present. Ongoing Series.

My pineapple illustration series celebrates the Hawaiian Islands’ many great activities, places creatures and traditions with a lot of love and some easy going whimsy. I’m having fun and I hope these paintings inspire the same smile I enjoy when I think of the wonderful experiences Hawaii has shared with me.

The paints which come closest to imitating Nature’s beauty must certainly be oil paints. The purity of color available to the oil painter is a joy and the medium itself is capable of a broad variety of useful applications. When tackling the Kauai landscape, that they are hydro-phobic is delightfully helpful. When (not if) it rains on my canvas or palette, I simply wait for the shower to pass, shake off the water droplets and pick up where I left off, no harm done!

Certainly oil is one of my favorite painting mediums and I hope you enjoy the works you see here. Prints and originals are available for sale and I love taking commissions. Please feel free to message me with all your ideas and desires!

This series of mixed media paintings feature collaged magazine clippings embedded within robust layers of acrylic paint. These celebratory works are made in response to the abundant variety of Hawaii’s tropical fruit. Each is a chance to explore painterly abstraction within representation, borrow ideas from personal influences like O’keefe or Cezanne, and convey concerns about important local issues, both environmental and social.

SIX PACK

Gouache on paper.

Ongoing series. 2017—present.

This series of works on paper was devised to explore abstract painting approaches. With each step the bottles become more and more difficult to ascertain, as though one were drinking them. Interestingly, next to the clear, literal depictions even the vague freewheeling abstractions still hint at or even look like the subject matter!

When people ask me if I have a favorite medium a tiny voice in the back of mind pipes up urging me to just admit it already, it’s watercolor! Certainly, it will always have a special place in my creative life. Watercolor was my first painting medium. Parents often let kids work in watercolor, as clean up is a cinch, but watercolor is a master’s medium. It’s by far the most technically complex and achieving desired results directly requires experience and forethought. I still have a lot to learn, which is great because I love the process!

The landscape of Kauai is not only a marvelous subject for watercolors but an excellent location to paint them in. The bright sunlight and predictable weather systems offer beautiful variety, the humid climate keeps paints workable longer, and there is no shortage of water to paint with! Each of the works in this collection was painted using sea water or water from a stream nearby. Many of my favorite spots are no easy trek so if I don’t have to carry extra water, I won’t.

Feel free to contact me if you have a specific commission in mind. I’m always keen to learn about other people’s favorite views.

Growing up the child of an antiquarian print dealer, surrounded by the skillfully wrought graphic work of 18th and 19th century art left a mark on my aesthetic and still guides my interests. In this series, a collage of antique text pages and illustrations fade beneath white washes and subtle color. The botanical designs are precisely lifted from Thomas Meehan's four volume edition, The Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States (printed by Louis Prang) whose rich chromolithographic colors inspired the vivid, coloristic treatment, modernized with contemporary pigments and acrylic. These botanical illustrations were done were finished and enlivened with selective touches of 24k gold leaf; calling new attention to an old, fabulous work of art.

Acrylic, collage of antique text and illustrations, and gold leaf.

18 x 24 in.

This series of original mixed media paintings is for sale through the family print shop. Please contact Josephine McDonough with inquiries.
http://www.mcdonoughfineart.com

These watercolors are the second series of iconic Central park views I have undertaken. Focus is drawn on the bridges, designed to lead the eye under and through each span the same way the parks designers wound the walkways cleverly from one picturesque vantage to the next. Technically, this series is tighter, more carefully painted than the first. Still, chances to let the paint bleed were relished, to lend softness and suggest atmosphere.

Watercolor on smooth "hot-pressed" museum board. 

8 x 10 in.

Some prints are for sale in the STORE.

CONTACT me if you want to buy one that is not.

This collection of works was made over the course of two weeks spent on SSI during April, 2019. While I painted many oil studies of the beach and the sea, I choose the trees of the island as the main focus for the watercolors, with a couple of landmarks tossed in for good measure.

Watercolors on paper. 11 x 14 in.

2019

Please send purchase inquiries to Josephine’s Emporium in Cashiers, NC or McDonough Fine Art in Atlanta, GA.

The beer bottle paintings were a delightful surprise to me which grew out of my need to paint small, having moved recently and without studio space. A common, humble subject was selected for convenience which developed into a rich series that pushes my artistic process. Plain, representational work was soon joined with other artistic goals: synesthesia of flavor and color or fluid brushwork to hint at each bottle's contents. Now I don't paint a bottle unless I've sampled the goods, and my tastes and tolerances affect how the paint is mixed and applied. Gratefully, craft beer is having it's moment. I am not lacking in subject matter.

I am currently partnered with the well renowned owners of City Swiggers, Alan and Pamela Rice. I am grateful for the ongoing opportunity to show this artwork at their establishment. Go check them out now. The paintings look great and their selection of bottles and cans is phenomenal. The staff is super helpful and always recommends something new for me.

City Swiggers, 320 East 86th St, New York, NY 10028

When you find yourself downtown please visit my friends at Benson's NYC. They too run a fabulous operation catering to beer connoisseurs and were singularly instrumental in this work's inception.

Benson's NYC, 181 Essex St. just south of Houston

Oils. Sizes ranging from 2 x 3 in. to 40 x 60 in.

Studies executed "from life" at the Art Students League of New York.

20 x 30 in. 

Vine and compressed charcoal, with stumping and chamois rubbed effects, plus stenciled erasures

Email to inquire about portrait commissions.

Each painting in this collection measures only 3 inches tall. The miniature scale is constricting, only essential facts earn mention. Control is called for but not the only matter, a variety of texture is equally important to me. I juxtapose transparent colors, scratched on by coarse hog bristles with opaque passages smoothly laid by silky, sable hair brushes. The colorful backdrops interest me as well, and Series II explores this potential with an abstract whimsy.