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Roundup at Sunset

Watercolors and story by Don Sylvester

Roundup at Sunset (watercolor using limited palette and ink)

Cats and Cowboys. Once I finished this, my daughter told me it was boring and to add cats. She was right I believe.

Road To The Beach At Sunset. It was started in the 1990s and I finished it last week.

I have painted watercolor paintings for over 40 years and has always seen the theme of my artwork change, much like those events that changed my life.

I grew up in Indiana on a farm in the country near my grandmother. Being a teacher, she noticed I liked to draw and assigned me things in her house to sketch. I later began drawing multiple pencil drawings of neighbors' barns and houses throughout the local area.

Moving to Houston in 1990, I went on to paint Mexican churches found on restaurant menus or flowering plantain stalks growing in neighbors' yards. Various animals and birds are featured in some of my creations such as my painting "Blue Swans" from his trips he took to the Galveston, Texas beach. I began also of course, painting cowboys, herds of cattle, Texas ranches and other western themes.

I began painting famous streets in Europe (Paris, London, Amsterdam) after traveling there in the 1990s. I drove a car from Amsterdam to Berlin (six months after the wall came down). I created many pen and ink drawings from that trip. Later, I went on to add more street scenes after I visited South America from where I adopted my beautiful daughter.

With over 15,000 restaurants in Houston, I noticed interesting people in the business trying to make a living. I began painting many waiters and restaurant workers for several years.

When my daughter moved to New Orleans to work and play music, she made me notice the architecture there and asked me to paint famous churches and local houses well known in that city. She was the one who told me to add cats to the pictures for interest.

Most of my watercolor pictures are generally painted with no more than two or three colors. I like to keep pictures simple and feel the key behind the picture is the ability to draw, thus the hundreds of pencil drawings I made long before trying to paint.

I live and continue to paint in Houston, Texas.

I am interested in painting with fewer colors (which ties pictures together automatically).

Thank you for having this contest. I appreciate getting to apply.

Don Sylvester