Watercolors by Jim Oberst Blog

A gondola ride on the Grand Canal is a required activity for all visitors to Venice! If you'd like to purchase this 15" x 22...

I've posted quite a few Artist Tips here (27 so far - you can find them by searching for artist tips in the search box in the right col...

This is Eilean Donan Castle (literaly, “island of Donan”) in the Scottish Highlands. The original castle was founded in the 13th century,...

When I ruin one of my watercolor paintings with a bad passage, I usually just throw it in the circular file and paint it over again.  But it...

Two boats wait quietly under a tropical sky. If you'd like to purchase this 15" x 11" original watercolor painting for $20...

Sign up for my fine art newsletter by April 23 and earn one entry in a drawing for one of these coffee-table books of my paintings.  ...

Artists who paint reality - who represent, in one style or another, the real world - can still exercise a lot of freedom in their paintings ...

Boats moored near shore at the end of the day. If you'd like to purchase this 22" x 7.5" original watercolor painting for ...

The marina at Port Penrhyn in northwest Wales. If you'd like to purchase this 11" x 15" original watercolor painting for $...

Our paintings are composed of shapes and lines , which are two of the seven Elements of Design .  The other five elements are essentially j...

We're going to take a little break from design, and talk about using an iPad (or other tablet) to manage reference photos. Shortly af...

The Lieutenancy building stands at the entrance to the Old Basin at Honfleur. It was built in the 18th century, and was the home of the G...

In our previous artist tip , we introduced the idea of simplification through using symbols .  We shall continue this discussion by introduc...

Across the Venice lagoon from St. Mark's Basilica lies a small island, San Giorgio Maggiore. It is home to a marina filled with sailb...

Mousehole (pronounced “mowzel”) is a picturesque seaside town in Cornwall, UK, with a beach and harbor ringed by stone jettys. If you...

Simplify, simplify!   Representational artists hear these words over and over again from teachers and art textbooks.  If we don’t simplify t...

In artist tip #9 , we introduced the Elements of Design - the elements we have to work with to create our paintings.  The first element we d...

The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore is a 16th century church with campanile, or bell tower, on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in the Ve...

Many artists, who don't like plein air painting, or who cannot spend the time on site that it requires, use reference photos for their ...

A view across the Venice lagoon of the marina on the tip of the island San Giorgio Maggiore. The church with its campanile dominates the ...