New Watercolors - Ralph F. Wilson

Here are some of my more recent watercolors.

Click on the thumbnail picture or title to see a larger image. To inquire about purchasing a painting, please contact the artist.

Watercolor - Dusk over the Pacific - 20" x 14" I love the leggy, wonky shapes of these Monterey Cypress trees (Cupressus macrocarpa}. Native to the Monterey-Carmel area of California, in the early 1900s they were planted along the North Coast from San Francisco to Fort Bragg and north. This painting reflects a row of trees at the edge of a golf course. Won Honorable Mention in the WASH ‘Awash with Color’ Member Exhibition at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center, March 28-April 15, 2023. 230315. Watercolor on 300 lb. cold press paper, 20" x 14". In the artist's personal collection.	Watercolor: St. Columba, Apostle to Scotland, 14" x 20" I've been lately about how much I owe to St. Columba (521-597 AD), an Irish abbot who became the apostle to Scotland, winning the wild Picts to Christ -- my ancestors. Columba brought 12 monks with him to Scotland about 563 AD, founding a monastery at Iona, from which missions went all over northern Scotland. In collection St. Columba's Inverness: Episcopal Church and Retreat House. 230517. Watercolor and ink, 14" x 20".
Watercolor: Great Horned Owl, 10" x 10" In May 2023 I saw a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) perched on the lamppost outside my study at dusk during a Zoom meeting. I also made a 4" x 4" version for the Library's Mini-Masterpiece challenge. Part of my 31 Paintings in July Challenge. 230711. Watercolor, 10" x 10".	Watercolor: Orange Day Lily - 10" x 7" Jean summoned me urgently to see an orange day lily outside the house. "They only last for a day," she said, and it was nearly dusk. There I found a beautiful single blossom of a Tiger Lily (Hemerocallis fulva), also known as the orange day-lily, tawny daylily, corn lily, fulvous daylily, ditch lily or Fourth of July lily. The last of my 31 Paintings in July Challenge for 2023. I couldn't resist. 230730. Watercolor, 10" x 7".
Watercolor: Lodgepole Pine Sprig - 14" x 10" I enjoyed moseying along the nature trail at Donner State Park that winds along both sides of Donner Creek as exits the lake. In the forest alongside the creek was this beautiful sprig of Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta), the only two-needle pine in the Sierra. I masked some of the sunlit needles, then did the background quite wet. After it dried, I removed the mask and painted the twigs and needles. Lots of fun! Exhibited in the “Awash with Color” WASH Show at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center, April 2 to 20, 2024, where it won an Honorable Mention. 230824. Watercolor, 14" x 10".	Watercolor: Mem Chu Arches, Stanford - 14" x 20" $0.00 During Jean's 50th Reunion at Stanford University in October 2023, I was photographing the iconic sandstone colonnade in the main quad. Here is a view through an arch to a stained glass window of Memorial Church (known as "Mem Chu" by the students.) It is a beautiful stained glass window of the Annunciation to Mary. Exhibited in the “Awash with Color” WASH Show at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center, April 2 to 20, 2024. 240116. Watercolor and ink, 14" x 20".
Watercolor: Solomon in All His Glory - 10" x 14" Ancient Near Eastern King Solomon was, in his day, the richest and most powerful monarch in his region. But he was best known for his wisdom. In this portrait I have tried to portray him as the strong king he was, splendidly clothed, and confident. I've used a kind of stained-glassy style, rather than full realism. 240122. Watercolor and ink, 10" x 14".	Watercolor: Hummingbird and Sage - 10" x 7" I often have Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) stop by my birdfeeder, but seldom have the light right to see the nearly phosphorescent head fathers. Here, it is feeding on a Woodland Sage (Salvia nemorosa), not native to California, but striking colors. 240213. Watercolor and ink on hot press paper., 10" x 7".
Watercolor: Sonoma Vines in Autumn - 14" x 10" On 15 December 2023, my son Dan and I took a road trip throughout Sonoma County looking for barns. Along the way we saw this beautiful vineyard set up against the surrounding hills. Exhibited in the “Awash with Color” WASH Show at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center, April 2 to 20, 2024. 240220. Watercolor, 14" x 10".	Watercolor: Old Glen Ellen Dary Barn - 14" x 10" In mid-December 2023, my son Dan and I scoured Sonoma County for old abandoned barns. We found this old dairy barn on Warm Springs Road in Glen Ellen, just north of Sonoma. It looks like the silo is a few degrees out of plumb, but what stands out to me is its steep roof. 240124. Watercolor, 14" x 10".
Watercolor: Spring Tulips on Cold Press - 14" x 10" I love spring because of its brilliant color. These tulips make me feel happy. 240317. Look for "Spring Tulips on Yupo" for a comparison. Watercolor on Arches Cold Press paper, 14" x 10".	Watercolor: Crimson Star Columbine - 10" x 10" I love the intricacy and delicacy of columbines! This one I saw at Green Acres Nursery. It is a cultivar (Crimson Star) of the Colorado Blue Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea). 240401. Watercolor. 10" x 10".
Watercolor: Four Tulips and a Stub - 14" x 10" When I opened our local library e-mail newsletter, I saw a beautiful photo of a bed of tulips. This is my interpretation of a cropped version. I tried to catch the feel of numerous happy spring tulips in the background, while focusing on four in the front. 240401. Watercolor, 14" x 10"	Watercolor: Spring Tulips on Yupo - 14" x 10" I love spring because of its brilliant color. These tulips make me feel happy. Look for "Spring Tulips on Cold Press" for a comparison. Jean's comment was that the "Spring Tulips on Cold Press" was "nice, "Spring Tulips on Yupo" was "interesting." :-) It won WASH Painting of the Month for April 2024. 240428. Watercolor on Yupo, 14" x 10".
Watercolor: Cluster of African Daisies - 14" x 10" $0.00 While Jean and I were walking at the local Green Acres Nursery in March I was struck by vibrancy of this bed of African Daisies (Osteospermum ecklonis, "Blue-Eyed Beauty"). I love the bright yellow with the centers that pop out at you! 240420. Watercolor, 14" x 10".	Watercolor: Geraniums in Blue Planter (Yupo) - 10" x 14" During the 2024 Mother's Day Master Gardener Tour of backyard gardens in Rocklin, I was struck by these geraniums in a large planter pot by the door to the patio. I changed the pot's color to Thalo Blue and painted on Yupo to keep the intense colors. Juried into the WASH Open Show, July 9 to Aug 3, 2024 at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center where it won an Honorable Mention. 240518. Watercolor on Yupo, 10" x 14".
Watercolor: White Watsonia, 14" x 20" The April 2024 Chamber of Commerce Mixer this year was at Horton's Iris Farm in Penryn again. I've painted a lot of irises, but I hadn't painted the distinguished white Watsonia plants standing proudly over to the side. To paint this I masked the flowers and stems, painted the background in one wet session. Then peeled off the mask and painted the stems and flowers. 240511. Watercolor, 14" x 20".	Watercolor: Bold Sunflower on Yupo - 10" x 10" As Jean and I were walking at the Green Acres Nursery near us I saw a happy sunflower that inspired this painting on Yupo. 240513. Watercolor and ink on Yupo, 10" x 10".
Watercolor: Olympic Fever - 20" x 14" NBC is giving constant messages about the upcoming Olympics which got me started. I found this frame on a slow-motion video on YouTube from the 2012 Helsinki games, where Greece's pole-vaulter Ekaterini Stefanidi was competing. She later won Gold in the 2016 Rio Olympics, also competing in the 2012 London and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 240623. Watercolor, 20" x 14"	Watercolor: White and Purple Iris on Yupo - 10" x 10" My struggling attempt to paint the subtlety and beauty of one of Jean's irises on an unsubtle surface. 240531. Watercolor on Yupo, 10" x 10"
Watercolor: Humbly Washing Feet, 14" x 20" For the cover for my new book Humility: Disciple's Guide to a Humble Life (2024), I painted this interpretation of footwashing, a most humble act. My friend Steve Winther modeled the feet. 240717. Watercolor, 14" x 20".	Watercolor: Crimson Columbine near Sierra City, 20" x 14" On a roadtrip with my son David in mid-July we saw this beautiful Crimson Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) along the moist bank at the roadside just east of Sierra City, CA. It is one of my favorite native flowers. I've only seen it in the high Sierras, but it grows all over California and the West, though not in the Central Valley, also known as the Western or Red Columbine. What I like about this picture is the wonderful gentle arc of the stem, and the bright flower against the abundant foliage. Won the November 2024 WASH Painting of the Month and exhibited at "Awash with Color," the WASH 2025 Member Show, Feb-Mar 2025. 240821. Watercolor. 20" x 14".
Watercolor: Sierra Dome East of Cisco Grove, 14" x 10" As my son David and I turned off I-80 onto Old US 40 east of Cisco Grove, we saw this huge granite dome with a hardy tree at its summit. It is between old US 40 and I-80 near Big Bend and Hampshire Rocks. 240827. Watercolor, 14" x 10".	Watercolor: Rocky Crag, Donner Pass Road In mid-July my son David and I took a road trip into the high Sierras. This is a rock crag that juts out between the windy Donner Pass Road and I-80 to the north (visible as a nearly horizontal line to the right of the picture), called George R. Stewart Peak on some maps. It is proud and rugged. I like its strength. 240827. Watercolor, 14" x 10".
Watercolor: Nuts, Fruits, and a River - 20" x 14" I was intrigued by paintings of the Sacramento River and the farmlands patchwork adjoining it. I looked for a windy river on Google Maps, and found the Feather River, just north of Marysville, California. Then on Google Earth I tipped it up at an angle, then painted from a photo of this view. I had fun, though the result has weaknesses. However, it won the WASH Painting of the Month in June 2024 by one vote -- against only one other submission that month. 240610. Watercolor, 20" x 14"	Watercolor: Opening Stained-Glass Rose - 10" x 10" Roses are so delicate. I wanted to see how to adapt stained-glass look to a rose. This was fun to do, but no longer delicate. 240911. Watercolor and ink on Yupo, 10" x 10".
Watercolor: Secret Ravine Roses - 10" x 14" In early June our SketchCrawl group went to paint at Secret Ravine Winery, on Barton Road, Loomis, near our home This group of roses near the main building attracted me, since scrunched together for composition purposes. We see everything from the bud to the fully open flower, and all in between. Won the October 2024 WASH Painting of the Month and an Award of Merit at "Awash with Color," the WASH 2025 Member Show, Feb-Mar 2025. 240918. Watercolor, 10" x 14".	Watercolor: Bird of Paradise (Yupo) - 14" x 10" When I preached in November 2024 at Mayhew Community Baptist Church in Rancho Cordova, one of the members always brings flowers from her garden to beautify the sanctuary. That Sunday she brought a Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae), a native of South Africa. It was stunning and inspired this painting. I used Yupo to try to capture the brilliant colors of this flower. 241121. Watercolor and ink on Yupo, 14" x 10".
Watercolor: Oiling Big Boy 4014 - 20" x 14" On July 12-13, 2024, Union Pacific's western tour of their steam engine Big Boy 4014 came to Roseville. On a Saturday morning at 9 am, I estimate 10,000 people were crowded along the tracks to look at this phenomenon. It is huge, with 16 driving wheels, more than twice most steam engines! The oilman is from an archived picture from the mid-1930s, added partly to give scale. While the locomotive is black, I thought dark blues were more artistic. I particularly liked so many lines converging on my center of interest. Exhibited at "Awash with Color," the WASH 2025 Member Show, Feb-Mar 2025. 241122. Watercolor, 20" x 14".	Watercolor: 3 Red Tulips - 14" x 10" I love tulips for their nice contained shapes as well as their brilliant color. 241213. Watercolor, 14" x 10".
Watercolor: 4 Red Tulips in a Field - 14" x 10" I love the color of the tulip field behind these four tulips in the foreground. 241213. Watercolor, 14" x 10".	Watercolor: St. Peter Medallion - 10" x 10" Around the nave in Saint Paul Church Outside the Walls Church in Rome are mosaic medallions of each popes. Originally painted, they were damaged in a fire and replaced in mosaic in 1823. I've always admired the image of St. Peter and tried to reproduce it in watercolor primarily with lines to simulate the mosaic tiles. 250105. Watercolor, 10" x 10".
Watercolor: Red Cactus Dahlia - 14" x 14" In mid-July 2022, I spent a couple of days in the Fort Bragg area. The spectacular Mendocino Botanical Garden has a special Dahlia Garden containing 150 varieties and 625 plants. I found this brilliant scarlet 'cactus' variety among them, with its tightly rolled petals that look like cactus spines. 250107. Watercolor, 14" x 14".	Watercolor: CalFire on the Fire Line - 14" x 10" In mid-January 2025, terrible wind-whipped wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades as well as Altadena in Southern California. In January! More than 4,400 firefighters from a number of agencies fought side-by-side. One firefighter said: "With a 10-mile-an-hour wind you are a firefighter. With a 30-mile-an-hour wind you are an observer." Inspired by an internet photograph, this painting memorializes the brave women and men who defend California from fires. 250127. Watercolor, 14" x 10".
Watercolor: Douglas Iris at Point Reyes - 14" x 10" On March 4, 2025 I spent a day at Point Reyes National Seashore. On a drive over to Limatour Beach, I saw numerous groups of the beautiful Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana) growing along the road. It is an early spring flower growing beautiful and delicate flower in the wild. I switched the background color to yellow to accentuate the beautiful cobalt blue violet of the flower. 250319. Watercolor, 14" x 10".	Watercolor: 'Ice Follies' Daffodil - 10" x 14" In mid-February this year Jean's daffodils began popping up. I especially enjoyed the 'Ice Follies' daffodil cultivar, with its frilly yellow cup against the snow-white petals. These are in one of Jean's cobalt blue vases on a small table cloth my mother got in her days serving on the Navaho Reservation. 250307. Watercolor and graphite, 10" x 14".
Watercolor: Luther's Iris - 10" x 10" On a trip to Santa Rosa on March 7, 2025, Jean and I stopped by the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens, headquarters of a famous horticulturalist (1849-1926). Not much was blooming yet, but one iris stood out, with yellow cream standards above and white falls below with blue-violet edges. Just beautiful! To make the delicate flower stand out, I masked the petal edges, then painted a nearly black background with concentrated mixes of lamp black, turquoise ultramarine, and Indanthrone blue. 250417. Watercolor, 10" x 10".