From Spain to Seattle: Painting West Seattle Bars in Watercolor for My July Show

I’m in Spain right now, moving through a stretch of days that feel like a different rhythm entirely—light, colour, distance—but my mind keeps flicking back to Seattle. My upcoming July show is pulling me in that direction, and I’m feeling that familiar split: two cities, two ways of seeing, and only one set of hands to keep up with it all.

The plan had been to focus on West Seattle for this next body of work. I started out strong with Easy Street Records, then shifted toward Connor Byrne down in Ballard, but both pieces stalled. The scale was off—too much detail trying to squeeze into small 6x8 watercolour studies. They just weren’t working, and I could feel myself forcing it. So I set them aside.

Sometimes that’s the only answer.

I started again with something looser: Poggie Tavern, and then moved into New Luck Toy . These ones are flowing again—simpler, more direct, more alive. A reminder that if I’m fighting a painting, something is off. It doesn’t need to be easy, but it shouldn’t feel like a battle with the format itself.

So for now I’m letting go of the struggle pieces and leaning into what works. In the next few weeks I’ll build a new group that reflects both where I am physically and where my work is mentally—Seattle always present, wherever I am quietly shaping the edges.

More soon…

2 pages from my accordion folder book of Granada…