Mountain Dreamscape

For those who have not read my previous two blogs, I am doing a series on Mt Tam to enter in an upcoming local exhibition. I'm trying out different techniques and when I've exhausted ideas, I will pick three of the best to enter in the show. I wanted to try the gouache gold dust I bought as an experiment. It was hard to photograph and capture how it really looks. This is the closest I got. I did texturing on the mountain peak and dribbled string gel over the first wash of qunacridone gold, then painted Pyrrole Orange over that. The sky was a mix of about three blues plus a little quinacridone magenta and the gold dust - maybe a little too much of the gold. Still trying to decide

Serpentine Mountain

Here is my abstract version of Mt Tam. I used one of the techniques mentioned in Ann Blockley's latest book by using cling film over the wet paint to create texture. The colors I used were quinacridone burnt orange, Prussian green and quinacridone gold - with some sepia ink squeezed under the cling film to add more texture. I thought the textures came out quite well and gave the mountain nice contours while remaining abstract. As it happens the stone on Mt Tam is called serpenting stone and is this very color green. This piece made it into the exhibition.

Mist Over Mt Tam

I am currently working on a series of watercolors depicting Mt Tamalpais to enter in a local gallery exhibition where the theme is "Under The Spell of Mt. Tam." I can enter up to three paintings, so I thought I would try to approach the subject in three very different ways. Mt. Tam is a very imposing mountain that can be seen from most areas in Marin. At it's highest point it is 2,574 feet and is often shrouded in mist - making a great subject for painting. Above is my first attempt with the mist coming down over the mountain.  I want to also do an abstract version and a night scene incorporating the mountain. My next two posts will follow this one - if they are successful that is. Update: this piece made it into the exhibition along with Serpentine Mountain.