Watercolor show at Billis Williams Gallery in Los Angeles from January 13 to February 17, 2024


Lucky, watercolor, 2023		Distant, watercolor, 2023

My first solo exhibition in three years will open at Billis Williams Gallery in Los Angeles on January 13, 2024. Titled Every tiny little thing, the work in this show spans a recent time period when I was recovering from a traumatic injury to my drawing hand that derailed my painting practice for over half a year and which is still impacting my productivity. Containing smaller watercolor paintings than I've shown before, this exhibition is about finding solace and humor in lowered expectations and minor miracles.

Please join us for the opening reception from 4 to 7 pm on January 13, 2024.

Billis Williams Gallery
2716 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA (map)
310-838-3685

This exhibition will continue through February 17, 2024. Click here to see the watercolors in the show.

2023 Group Show in New York City

Cheery, watercolor, 2020, 3.5 x 4 in.

Three of my recent watercolor paintings, including the smallest painting I've exhibited in years (shown here), were part of a fun summer group show at George Billis Gallery, near the High Line in the Chelsea Arts District of New York City.

This show ended on June 29, 2023.

George Billis Gallery
527 West 23rd Street (Ground Floor),
New York, NY 10011
(map)

www.georgebillis.com

See my other paintings in this exhibit here...

Watercolor Painting Tips on TikTok and YouTube

You can follow me on TikTok or subscribe to my channel on YouTube to learn watercolor tips and techniques for all experience levels, or perhaps you might just be curious to see how my paintings are made...

Shop Available Watercolors Online

You can now browse and buy my available watercolors online at 1stdibs.com. Or buy open edition prints of select watercolors at fineartamerica.com. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

2021 Watercolor Show in Connecticut


Change, watercolor, 2018		Watching, watercolor, 2019

An exhibition of my watercolor paintings exploring themes of transparency, fragility, and a somewhat comforting illusion of safety from various mortal hazards, opened at George Billis Gallery Westport on June 18, 2021. Eight of my recent paintings were featured.

This show ended July 25, 2021.

George Billis Gallery Westport
166 Main Street
Westport, CT 06880 (map)

Click here to see the paintings in the show. Or browse all available paintings here

It's all arranged, solo show at George Billis Gallery Los Angeles


Timeout, watercolor, 2019		Quarantine, watercolor, 2020

It's all arranged, a solo exhibition of my recent watercolor paintings, combining still life and painted text with themes of confinement, yearning, and looming disaster, opened at George Billis Gallery Los Angeles on November 21, 2020.

This show ended January 16, 2021.

George Billis Gallery
2716 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA (map)

Some paintings from the show are still available... Click here to see.

Or you can follow my studio account @paulpitsker to see the very latest work in progress on Instagram.

Signals, watercolor, 20 x 15 in.

Exhibit at the Carnegie Art Museum

Two of my watercolor paintings were included in The Imaginary, a group show at the Carnegie Art Museum exploring art that co-mingles realism with elements arising from the imagination. The small creatures inhabiting my watercolor paintings in this show entice the viewer to first empathize with them as the unlikely heroes of staged dramas involving impossible situations or forces beyond their control, and then to imagine what might happen next. These otherwise realistic still life paintings encourage one to supply an imagined ending, happy or otherwise, to the impossible narratives they depict.

Ended May 19, 2019

Carnegie Art Museum
424 S C St, Oxnard, CA 93030
Los Angeles, CA
(map)

See more recent work...


Trace, watercolor, 2018		Tap, watercolor, 2018

What Lies Within, solo show at George Billis Gallery Los Angeles

Twenty of my watercolor paintings were featured in What lies within, a solo exhibition at George Billis Gallery Los Angeles. The punning title of this show plays with the theme of transparency as it applies to colorful and translucent subjects rendered in transparent watercolor as well as to the unreliability of the textual and narrative elements in these scenes.

Ended June 23, 2018.

George Billis Gallery
2716 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
(map)

Some paintings from this show are still available... Click here to see.

Soluble Power at the Carnegie Art Museum

Sparky, watercolor, 2013

Buzz, watercolor, 2014

It was my privilege to be able to contribute ten watercolor paintings, to Soluble Power, a museum exhibition exploring the use of watercolor by six Southern California artists. Curated by Suzanne Bellah for the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard, CA, the show also featured watercolors by Gary Brewer, Gail Faulkner, Joanne Julian, Mona Neuhaus, and Doug Shoemaker. This show ended on August 20, 2017

Click here to see the watercolors in this show.

It's so easy to follow me on Instagram...

Want to see more than just the completed watercolor paintings shown here on this website? Follow me on Instagram to keep up with what's going on in the studio, see the latest work in progress on the drawing board, and check out the various unusual subjects who have been posing for me lately. See what's happening now...

What's Clear Now, solo show at George Billis Gallery Los Angeles

Dreamcatcher, watercolor, 2015

Nesting, watercolor, 2014

Sixteen of my latest watercolor paintings featuring desktop life and death dramas, handwritten notes from strangers, invertebrates in jeopardy, and other vibrant and transparent subjects, were featured in "What's Clear Now," a solo exhibition at George Billis Gallery in the Culver City arts district in early spring 2016. This exhibition also included the first oil paintings I've shown anywhere in the last ten years.

Ended April 2, 2016

A few paintings are still available... View the Gallery

George Billis Gallery
2716 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
(map)

Recent Work at Swenson Fine Art

Milk, watercolor, 25 x 18 in.

Shine, watercolor, 10 x 7 in.

Recent work by Los Angeles artist Paul Pitsker at Swenson Fine Art focused on the trials of navigating a world filled with dire perils as well as intense and exquisite beauty. The transparency of watercolor as a medium dovetails cleanly with these transparent themes and subjects.

Swenson Fine Art
460 South Coast Highway
Laguna Beach, CA
www.swensonfineart.com

Ended February 15, 2012

One watercolor painting from this show is still available.

WILDlife at Heather James Fine Art

Chill, watercolor, 2008

Muffled, watercolor, 2011

"WILDlife playfully reinterprets the traditional notion of animal depictions in art by displaying conventional imagery with avant-garde portrayals of the creatures of nature. The exhibition parallels Heather James Fine Art�s program of presenting art from a wide-range of genres, movements and cultures by bringing together a diverse group of art and artists from cultural antiquities to modern and cutting-edge contemporary with works representative of the wildlife art genre..." (more)

Heather James Fine Art
172 Center Street
Jackson, WY
(307) 200-6090

Ended September 30, 2011.

Enigmas and Elegies at Left Coast Galleries, Studio City, CA

Tilt, watercolor, 25 x 18 in.

Pointed, watercolor, 20 x 15 in.

Left Coast Galleries featured over twenty of my watercolors in the solo exhibition "Enigmas and Elegies." Taking on delicate subjects, both literally and figuratively, these paintings also apply the delicacy and transparency of watercolor to explore the effects of light through materials of varying translucence or reflected from unforgiving metal surfaces.

Left Coast Galleries
11734 Ventura Boulevard
Studio City, CA 91604

Ended: May 25, 2010

See more paintings from the show...

Paul Pitsker Feature Articles and Magazine Covers...

Spotted, watercolor, 20 x 15 in.

Tiger beetle conservation exhibit in Lincoln, Nebraska

I was pleased to be invited to participate in "Salt Creek Environment: Local and Endangered," an entomology/conservation-themed exhibit at the Haydon Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska. The work of the 23 artists in this show feature the endangered salt creek tiger beetle, one of the rarest insects in the world. This predatory beetle, and the unique inland saline marsh in which it lives, is currently threatened by encroaching development and habitat degradation.

Curated by entomologist Tierney Brosius at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, the exhibit was funded in part by the Nebraska Environmental Trust, the Saline Wetland Partnership, and the Xerces Society.

Ended July 31, 2009

Read more about salt creek tiger beetles here.

Spirits Of Los Angeles at the L.A. Municipal Gallery in Barnsdall Art Park

Curated by Los Angeles painter Raoul De la Sota, this exhibit brought together 14 L.A. artists who share a common interest in the unseen, and who explore, in varying degrees, the duality of a symbolic, non-material reality existing side by side with the contemporary urban experience. I contributed five works to this show -- three figurative oil paintings at the main gallery space at Barnsdall Art Park, and two additional works (including the watercolor shown here) that were exhibited in the Tom Bradley International Terminal at the Los Angeles Airport.

Los Angeles Municipal Gallery
4800 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, CA

Ended April 20, 2008

Click here to see other images of recent work...

Grounder, watercolor, 25 x 18 in.


Pinch, watercolor, 20 x 15 in.		Dryer, watercolor, 25 x 18 in.

New works on paper: You are here at Bandini Art in Culver City, Fall 2007

Bandini Art Gallery in Culver City featured over a dozen of my latest works on paper in a two-person exhibit with assemblage artist Ashley McLean Emenegger. Called You are here, this exhibit explored issues of presence, perspective, and impermanence. My contribution was a series of watercolors that combine fictional scenes of impending disaster with word play and dark humor.

Bandini Art Gallery
2635 S. Fairfax Ave
Culver City, CA

Ended December 8, 2007

You can see the work in the show here.


Erasing, watercolor, 10 x 7 in.		Everything, watercolor, 25 x 18 in.

Contemporary Realism at Modern Masters Fine Art in Palm Desert, November 2007

Several of my watercolor paintings were included in the winter Contemporary Realism show at Modern Masters Fine Art in Palm Desert, CA. Also featured were recent paintings by Braldt Bralds, Dan Griggs, and Michael Sokolis.

Modern Masters Fine Art
(now Melissa Morgan Fine Art)
73040 El Paseo
Palm Desert, CA

Ended December 2007

Small pigeon holes, watercolor, 8 x 6 in.

About Paul Pitsker

I have been making art obsessively all my life in a variety of media. My watercolors depict puzzling dilemmas, unexpected encounters, and staged existential dramas, often involving local urban wildlife, which I strive to render with photographic clarity, humor and sympathy. These small creatures might be stand-ins for you and me in urgent situations involving seemingly indifferent forces beyond our control. Or they might be the apparent recipients of scrawled messages lying directly underfoot and yet remaining forever outside their awareness. These paintings aim to combine an intense, sharp-focus realism with an atmosphere of disquiet and a sense of the impenetrable strangeness and fragility of life.
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