Don Trout Artist, Teacher, Demonstrator
A LIFE-LONG LOVE AFFAIR WITH ART
During my preschool years I found a pencil and I started drawing. This was the beginning of a life-long love affair with
art. In grade school my notebook of drawings outweighed my notebook of school work. The drawings were not
masterpieces, just tanks, planes and soldiers, battle scenes and other typical subjects of a young boy's musings.
As a grade schooler, my mother gave me a set of watercolors. I was noticing other things now, like the beauty of
young girls, and the natural world around me. I morphed into a painter. I soon had a watercolor entered in a school
competition and won a Saturday Scholarship to the Art Institute. As a typical youngster, drawing from plaster casts
didn't hold my attention; so the Art Institute effort didn't last long.
I continued to paint, however, and on entering the university decided on a fine art major. Now disciplined art study was
no longer a chore. In fact, I relished the classes. It was here I discovered the love of oil paint and the feel of canvas
under the brush. I enjoyed the camaraderie of the small group of art majors. The curriculum, touching on every
medium, studying the old masters, and visits to the local art museum, brought the entire world of art to life for me.
To this day I still feel a thrill laying a watercolor wash and seeing the affect of transparent pigment on fine white
watercolor paper; and the same satisfaction from picking up a brush loaded with oil paint and caressing the surface of
a canvas. Whether my compositions are planned and followed through to completion or spontaneous and started with
random patterns and shapes until the surface textures tell me what is needed to make a painting, I derive the same
satisfaction.
My life wouldn't be complete if I didn't paint. I am still having a love affair with art
The guitarist is Darryl Denning playing:
Study in E Minor by Francisco Tarrega, a selection
from Darryl's CD: Classical Guitar Artistry.
Looking back at my Art and How Moving to the desert In 2015 I was Excited by the Landscape and Mountains
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I Was Still Painting in My Traditional Styles and Tho Excited by the Landscape, I Didn't Feel any Real New Progress in My Art. Then I witnessed a Demo by a Local Artist Painting Full Sheet Watercolors in a Totally Wet Technique and started experimenting with it in 2018 .
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I painted mostly small canvases, max size 20" x 20"
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As I got more acquainted with the area the canvases got bigger and more fun to paint
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This was a commission, two smaller 24" by 12" and a final version 48" x 24"
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30" x 24" became my favorite size
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I painted this beach
scene during a period of
hot humid weather as a
form of escape.
A 30" x 40" painting for Stonewall Gardens
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Four paintings using textured collage
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The Joshua Tree park enfluence
At the time I painted the above five paintings I was enfluenced by the volcanic eruptions in Hawaii.
By this time I was beginning to get more free with that big sheet of 22" x 30" watercolor paper, super wet, slapped on a sheet of plexi-glas
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This was a first effort at
seeing what I could do
with this kind of wet on
wet, transparent color,
opaque colors, watercolor
crayons, and soluble
black pencils. A 14" x 22"
half sheet testing colors
and blends.
I began to get somewhat of a feel for the tools but was still painting a hard edged image. I did start using salt for texture and getting more comfortable working the full sheet 22" x 30"
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*To see a continuation of the wet watercolor technique see the
Hubble Art gallery pages.
*For a look at my current project see the bottom of the next page