Pitiado

Pitiado

“Pitiado” is a type of hand embroidering used on horse saddles in Mexico. The heading of this watercolor landscape art painting “Pitiado” could have have been “Kokopelli” because of that image present. The designation came from a contest suggested by Jim Ferguson when I was interviewed by him on 3/13/04 for the “Great American Outdoor Trails” radio show. He recommended that I sent out a request to all of my patrons who have my landscape art and challenge them to come up with a moniker for this whimsical art. The winner who came up with the appropriate handle received a Giclée of “Pitiado.”  As it turned out the radio jock had the best title, of course, the 2nd best was “Kokopelli” of this landscape canvas print.

Kokopelli

When I originally photographed this adobe, the sign where the Kokopelli is, replaced  “Abogado,” which means an attorney in Spanish. This set was used as a prop in some of the famous western movies made at Old Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona.  From western movie heroes like John Wayne to current box-office stars such as Harrison Ford, many of Hollywood’s legends have walked past this structure. And many wood-be actors have only daydreamed of performing here.

Adobe Appearance

Look close, and you can see the technique I used while painting this landscape wall art. The first thing to do is to mask anything that isn’t the building. Masking Fluids prevent the paper from absorbing color. I applied a mask before I used a wash to protect areas that I wanted to remain white. Using a 2″broad brush while the paper is wet, I put down the colors of yellow, orange, red and cobalt blue, one after the other. This way they could blend. I then sprinkled kosher salt, to absorb some of the pigment and put saran wrap over the entire area and scrunched it up. When the paint dried, I peeled away the covering and wiped away the salt. This technique was used for Drums & Mocassins, Mondays, Taos Pueblo, and San Ysidro to name a few.

Sedona Landscape Paintings

While I love painting with watercolors, my current love is using acrylics, both heavy body, and liquid acrylics. Creating Sedona landscape paintings and any form of Sedona art is my current direction.