22 Watercolor artist | OCTOBER 2019
The sketch (at left)
for Surf at Acadia
National Park (above;
watercolor on paper,
22x28) shows the
evolution from plein
air study to painting.“If my car is nearby, I’ll dry the paint
by using the car’s heater; otherwise,
I’d just be standing around, literally
waiting for paint to dry.”
While the artist’s paintings of fog
and mist present his approach in the
strongest terms, his handling of other
weather scenarios deploys a similar
strategy of simplifi cation. Details are
heavily edited, and the paintings work
by the power of restraint and sugges-
tion as much as by their clarity of
rendering. “I think great realism
captures the impression of nature’s
eff ects,” Popadics says. “It shouldn’t be
merely an inventory of detail. I think
the best statements of light and
shadow are simple. To me, paintings
overloaded with detail are tiresome.
When a painting is a little under-worked, the viewer gets to participate in the picture,
too. A well-placed stroke or two, instead of 20 or 30,
that describes something convincingly, is masterful.”Chasing Goals & the Golden Hour
Popadics generally collects his images directly from
nature, working outdoors in all weather. “When
I began as a landscape painter, I assumed a location