Austin Stevenson Owens

Kingfisher Catch of the Morning 13" x 9-1/2" This painting is selling for $391, and that includes domestic shipping. UNTIL 31MAR22, this painting is ON SALE for $ If you have spoken with me first, you can PAY ME NOW at  THIS LINK Include Title of Painting in the "Notes" section  I thought I'd post my first painting that's for sale. Mostly become I wanted to contrast my earliest paintings with what practice for two years has done for me!   I never would have even ATTEMPTED this painting early on- it's far too complex and it really would have been impossible. I'm sure that if I were to paint this again in a couple of years that it would be that much better.  :) This painting is pure watercolor.  That means all of the whites are the white of the paper.  This is no easy task! I started this painting with a freehand sketch.  After I was satisfied with proportions, I used masking fluid to block out things I wanted to keep white... ESPECIALLY the splashe...

One of my favorite quotes is from Ratatouille , the PIXAR film. It says Anyone can Cook.  I think it's similar with painting... ANYONE can paint.  Even if you don't have amazing supplies. CLEARLY these pieces are cute but lack depth. But I did them with Crayola watercolors.  It was how I knew I had at least a knack with painting, and it's how I knew I wanted to get really involved with watercolor.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  I'm EXCEPTIONALLY thankful for friends who saw something in these efforts and encouraged me to keep going.  *hugs  

  OH MY GOODNESS, look what I found!!  This was a 2019 painting from New York!  I still have these on file somewhere and can make prints of them... THIS is one of the ones I did with CRAYOLA paints!!  I just remembered where my file is of my oldest paintings... Here I go to find them...

  This cutie's name is "FPK," or "Front porch kitty."  He lived at my friend Jennifer's house.  She had posted a photo of him on Facebook and I wanted to paint him.  :)  Interestingly, the final painting *resembles FPK, but FPK is a lot thinner than this floofy guy! This was the first painting I did that wasn't planned out ahead of time.  I just put the colors in and let them spread out.  It was just a very fun painting to create.

  This is another painting for a friend.  Juli and I met on Facebook when we both lived in Georgia.  We hit it off really quickly but then she moved to Israel!  This photo is from her time there...  We actually moved to New York, then she moved to Oklahoma before we FINALLY got to meet in person in N'O'leans of all places.  It was everything I had hoped!  It was (and still is) a very natural friendship where nothing's forced.  I LOVE THAT about Juli. I thought I would NEVER finish painting it.  It was one of the most difficult paintings I had done to date.   Although honestly, EVERY painting I attempted was the most difficult paintings I had done to date, ha!   This painting had golden tones and the laid bricks were iconic. I can't count how many times I had to redo places.  The details were so numerous that each section of painting needed its own time. You can see I was still using the student paints and the whites....

  Some friends are for life.  And that's how I would describe my sweet friend Amy. Amy is an angel and seeing this painting I did for her reminds me that I should message her!   I asked her what she'd like a painting of, and she said she loved PIGS.  When I saw this photo, I knew this was the one to paint.  It's one of my favorite paintings- probably because it shows how much I I mean... the PIG loves ice cream. I also love the colors in it.  It's one of the first paintings where I was able to see some of the layering I wanted to do of colors.  Get a good look at that waffle cone.  And the ice cream as it drips.  And the purple and yellow undertones of the piggy. This painting represents some real wins for me artistically.  *heart