Category: Watercolor

Greens Against the Sky – 1

Over the past two or three weeks – really, since the last posting – I have not had time to lift up a paint brush or pencil. It makes for a good break up to a point but when I look back, some of the stuff keeping away from watercolor and paint have been the less attractive necessities of life! Today I have finally settled a bit, enough to take the time out of the day to see if I could even focus on paint without creating mud.

Apparently I can!

Whenever I have not painted for a bit, I like to dive into something which is comfortable – landscapes – and makes me happy – brilliant greens against an intense sky. The American Southwest can provide it, as can spring in California, but today I went to Pixabay to look at pictures of Great Britain. I love their landscapes, especially the Dales and the South Downs, and anything along the coast. Here, living in dry California, such lushness always appeals to me.

This is certainly not my best work, but it is not my worst. The usual lack of depth dogs me except perhaps for the hilltop in the upper left below the sky. I do like the simplicity of my colors, though; it is too easy to do detail after detail after detail.

Anyway, I spent a few hours somewhere in England, and it feels pretty good.

Fishing Shack

Rockport, Massachusetts, and Cape Ann, has been a destination for artists and tourists for many years, but it is also a place rich in history. Very picturesque, it is fun to comb through old and new photos to see what has changed – and in some places very little. This building – a fishing shack – is an iconic building which be seen in photos past and present. It sits on a rock jetty that has ladders running down its sides so boats can be accessed when the tide is in or out.

The drawing is not really well done here, but I worked my way through it despite my frustration. The left slanting roof is very different than the right side. The stony foundation upon which the shack sits, though, is actually as depicted – it slopes inward and so looks as if it bulges out at the water level. I expect this is the way it was constructed originally. I also had a problem with contrast – as always – and values. I think I will paint it again, this time gridding it out and doing a value study as the subject matter is really interesting to me.

I kinda like my seagulls!!

Fabriano 100% cotton 140# CP; 9×12.

Class: Boats on Land

A bit over a year ago I spent far too much money on a class I didn’t like. I liked the artist’s work, and some of the teaching methodology, but in the end felt it was like a big rip off. Most classes lack good content and good teaching as far as I am concerned, and being cheap, I am not inclined to spend the amount I did last year. The course was a gamble, and I lost.

On the other hand, I have been really happy with Shari Blaukopf’s short courses and demos, which are content rich and reasonably priced. I have been working to incorporate the simplicity and directness with which she paints to keep from overworking my own watercolors – and believe me, overworking a watercolor is awfully easy! Ian Roberts’ course and follow-up group for his Mastering Composition has also been a great group to belong to and participate in.

I have also decided to enroll in Matthew White’s course on a monthly basis – Learn to Paint Watercolor. He has monthly demos, and critiques. There is a nice group of watercolorists of different levels of experience and skill, and so far it is worthwhile. The fact I can stop my monthly subscription beats a year paid up front for not too much I couldn’t learn on my own. I’ve watched his critiques and they are valid, and he works to make sure that as many people get a brief but informative bit of feedback.

Anyhow, this is the first of the demos I did of Matt’s. He has a lot of things I don’t paint – like boats, buildings, cows, nights, hay bales. The challenge is there, and I am looking forward to them. His demos are clear and sequential, and even though I doubt I will follow them step by step, there is something definitely to be learned.

The title of this painting – from Matt’s demo – is “Boats on Land” – definitely a boat yard and storage facility. I liked doing this, and was really happy to see Matt paint around the light boat sections with darker paint. I need to see that and do that. I think my painting turned out okay!

Windbreak

California is losing its farmland – development of tract homes played a big part in the loss of arable land. Now it’s floods and drought. But in a more perfect world, eucalyptus trees were planted between fields to keep the damage from wind – erosion – down, especially when the east winds blew.

Here, more working with broad swaths of similar colors laid out in a wash. I did this one in a few layers. The first thing I did was the sky and the tree trunks. From there, a pale layer of varying color for the tree foliage, and second and third layers of the same, increasing in darkness. At the end, the field and track and a bit of stuff in the distance. Branches in both dark paint and in gouache.

I have been using Strathmore “Vision” 140# paper for this and other studies, and it is not too bad! Reasonably priced, and it seems to be holding up quite well to wetness and working. I haven’t tried larger sheets, but this may make me interested for practice.