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Showing posts from March 29, 2020

Stuart (Stu) Botten (1927-2002), Minnesota Artist

Stuart Botten, better know just as Stu, understood watercolor magic. Up in the port city of Duluth, he takes on a subject of frozen winter on the edge of Lake Superior, the shore's edge holds the ice. His overlapping tugboats provide a foreshortening of this crowded composition. In the composition, he determines what is important and not important, using color value, placement and proportion, all designed to create his final interpretation of the harbor. "Duluth Tugboats" Watercolor on Paper Approx: 24" X 18" Signed LRC: Stu Botten in Pencil Botten uses brush splatters to create a frozen sky, that adds a richness and nuance to the image. I am not sure there are colors called, rusted iron, gray snow, bright boat white and frozen sky, yet these are the values and hues from his color palette wheel. His color spectrum demonstrates his artistic skills. He served as the first President of the Northstar Watermedia Society, the oldest watercolor society in Minn