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Watercolor Paintings and Western Art by Kevin Mastin

Since most of my work is commission I haven’t spent much time presenting some of my personal artwork. When working for clients I use many different media depending on the project. The good part of that is that I am proficient in everything from pencil, charcoal, pen & ink, acrylic, gouache, and watercolor. The bad part of it is that I haven’t mastered any particular medium.

When painting for pleasure I tend to go with watercolors: they are spontaneous and very versatile. Some purists demand transparency and prohibit the use of opaque colors—particularly the “EVIL” white. Myself, I like to go with whatever is fun and looks right.

Stirrin’ the Pot

I captured this guy making chili out in the Stock Yards at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado. The sun was going down, it was bitter cold, yet he was undeterred working his magic in a cast iron kettle over hot coals. On this painting I was squeezing paint directly from the tube to the paper using very little water.

Stirrin’ the Pot 22″ x 14″ Watercolor Painting by Kevin Mastin

Caddy Girl

This is my daughter, Helen (aka Caddy Girl) pretending to work on my old Cadillac. (It’s a 1968 Coupe deVille that I bought from my Grandpa in 1997.) I painted this during an Eric Weigardt class I was taking at the Springmaid Watermedia Workshops in Myrtle Beach. He calls this exercise “100 brush strokes” and, yes, the painting has exactly 100 strokes—we counted. It’s an interesting exercise in that it both allows the painter to work loosely in large, sweeping movements, but also requires careful planning to pull it off. I used a very limited complementary color pallet of purples and yellows, mixing many of the colors directly on the paper. Also, this is a full sheet so I was working with just one large brush (a #24) and lots of water—very fun!