WATERCOLOR PAINTING WITH ARTIST COUNCIL MEMBER DON PIRCH

"Franciscan Prayer Garden" 2021

​Artist Council member Don Pirch is exhibiting in the upcoming Scapes and Scope Visions of the Land, Sea and Urban Space on view at the Huntington Beach Art Center September 18 - October 23. The artist shares some of his recent watercolors depicting Mission San Juan Capistrano in this intimate look at the artist's process and perspective. 

​The 2021 watercolor is a perspective view of the Franciscan Prayer Garden inside the mission. Don performed extensive research of the site, both online and in-person. Taking photos of the garden and sketching it by hand, the artist captures a sense of place in his rendering of the mission's building materials and foliage.
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"I like the crispness, color variety and relative values of all the objects, says Pirch.

"I experimented with a variety of watercolor brush configurations, sizes, and brush shapes. All this to obtain the desired visual effect I need to emulate the observed site material conditions."

"Return of the Swallows" 2019

Architectural Detail. Masonry Arch. 2019

"This site is a gold mine for painting architectural features," according to Don.  Two of the artist's recent artworks were selected for display in the Scapes and Scope juried exhibition. Please visit the exhibition online or in our galleries located in downtown Huntington Beach.​