This watercolor artist is so bad that it’s almost a waste of time to talk about him. He’s not a versatile artist in that he only paints one subject with only one medium…..a weekend artist. I hate artists like that…..not very important as a viable working fine artist…..an amateur! There are also several artist’s blogs that talk about all the corruption in art societies in America and this guy is mentioned many times. He is now known as the thief who was in charge of the American Watercolor Society at one time. This explains why that society has lost all the great notoriety it once had. It is now known as a failed society!
The most famous incident is when, as the president of the American Watercolor Society, he accused a very famous artist of plagiarism. The artist in question got an attorney and proved that accusation to be false. However, Mr. McFarlane didn’t abide by that information and decided that he was going to keep the artist’s money! He never returned that artist’s award that was taken away from him. McFarlane literally stole the artist’s money and probably placed it into his own bank account not telling the AWS! When the artist contacted McFarlane many times to get it back, as anyone would have done, McFarlane had the next President (Antonio Masi) and the Vice President (Joel Popadics) cancel the artist’s membership to keep the artist quiet! When the artist asked them why, they gave him no reason….that’s illegal!!!!!! Nice guys huh…this is criminal! They most likely did that as a favor to their very good friend McFarlane. If any of you are thinking about becoming a member of this corrupt society, I would think twice about that. The AWS has many problems now with corruption and ethical issues from their top officers!!!! Not only is McFarlane a thief, but his moral character is also in question!
This is one of McFarlane’s horrible watercolors. The values of all the colors here are all the same thus becoming very boring. If you notice, The sky and the sidewalk are the same color and density. One of them should have been lighter. Because the sky is so dark, he should have made more contrast in the painting by making the buildings lighter to accomplish that. Right now, there is no contrast because the colors are the same value.
Also, if you notice, the perspective is off on the buildings on the right. If you lay a pencil on the lines of the roof of the buildings in the middle, you can see that on the sienna building to the right, the yellow sections of the roof are not lined up. The same is true on the pink building on the left. All the balconies are pointed downward. That would never happen! Id though it’s a loosed watercolor, you should at least show that you understand perspective.
I have to say that this artist work on his site is just about he worst group of paintings I have ever seen. As it turns out, McFarlane is also talked about on another site called “Bad Watercolor Artists” next to his site on the internet……och, but, well deserved! His paintings are so bad that he resorts to plagiarizing paintings in order to come up with something that looks nice. If you are thinking about buying one of his paintings….don’t….it just may be a copy of another artist’s painting! They are so badly done that they will be no value in the future. Believe it or not, this guy also teaches workshops so, if you are a beginner, I wouldn’t consider taking lessons from an artist such as this who is obviously so horrible at watercolor painting. You will learn nothing….save your money!!!! Also, if you are on a workshop committee, you should look for other more viable artists to teach your students. This artist is an imbecile and has nothing to offer anyone!!!!!
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