Raleigh Kinney - Watercolorist

Raleigh Kinney lives in southern Arizona and is one of the artists who participated in the challenging Grand Canyon Celebration of Art
last week.

Here is how he describes his process using watercolor:

"The pattern or large shapes that interlock and which can unify scattered motifs occupy the largest portion of my painting surfaces. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being white and 10 black, these large shapes never exceed a value of 3 to 4. The medium shapes that house my major darker values and what is seen as identifying pattern or subject are hung on these larger forms. My smallest darkest shapes are considered detail and call attention to my major focal points - places of strongest contrast. Color, which is the song and dance in my paintings, helps create the mood and entertainment that gives my motifs the time and season. Alternation and exaggeration of colors, warms next to cools, within their respective shapes and gradations of these add a creative and personalized facet. Watercolor provides many different working methods: Generally, I prefer to work on a dampened sheet utilizing the dampness to achieve a softer depth of color through blends of warms and cools mixed on my paper. Later, as the sheet begins to dry, I can expect my richer colored shapes to hold their edges better, reflecting the focal points and drawing the viewer’s attention to what I want them to see. Finally, a few accents of darks and pure color are carefully selected and placed where the viewer will find them. The overall look in my paintings, hopefully, expresses a simplified, distilled view of what attracts me."