Paintings available from the
Darwin and Ethel Musselman Exemption Trust
"Crystal Ice Co." 1978, Watercolor, 21" x 29" $7,500
"Monterey" 1955, Watercolor, 21" x 29" $32,000
While primarily known as an oil painter, Darwin Musselman was also accomplished as a watercolorist, having been accepted into The American Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society. He worked with two types of watercolors: opaque (which is akin to water--based oil paints but not acrylics - see detail upper left) and transparent watercolors (in which the paper and everything beneath the top layer shows through - see detail lower left). In this compilation, we list opaque watercolors with oil paintings but reserve this page for the more technically challenging medium of transparent watercolors. Musselman worked in opaque watercolor much as he did with oils, with frequent use of a palette knife and texturing the paint, both techniques are seen in the detail from "Mendocino Church" (the full image may be found on the "Abstract paintings" page). With transparent watercolor, one feature that most watercolorists use is the blending to zero color elements in the sky as can be seen in the detail from "Monterery." Also in that detail, one can see the care needed in forming the word, "FISH," and the fish itself below that where it's actually formed by the dark background.