Shades Of Winter

I painted this watercolor on a gray day in Sausalito, California. We look out over Richardson bay, which leads into San Fracisco bay. I love the neutral tones of the sky and land on days like this. As you can see, I took a lot of artistic license to make the watercolor more appealing. I wanted to show what one can do with a little imagination. I used only two colors, French ultramarine and quanacridone burnt orange. I did add a little white gouache for texture in the dark landscape area. The inspiration was from this photo below taken from my deck.

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

Horizontal versus Vertical

This painting of an abstract landscape is a classic example of a painting that should have been painted in a horizontal instead of vertical format. I realized this the minute I finished it and thought I would just crop it, but I wasn't that happy with the trees all bunched together - thought that was a bit boring - so I painted a second watercolors using the horizontal format. If I had only followed what I learned during my years with Jerry Stitt AWS, I would have first done a sketch in both formats to see which looked better. It would have been pretty obvious, I think. Below is my second attempt with one of the the trees a little separated, which I think makes for a more interesting composition. I used my new Daniel Smith kyanite genuine for the shrubs and trees and transparent pyrrol orange and quinacridone gold for the rest of the painting. I also used a blue for the sky instead of the warm colors in the first piece. I think this works better. Size is 11" x 14".

Mt Tam Mist

 

I don't usually like doing commissions but when someone admires a painting you do that is no longer available, and they request something similar, it becomes a challenge to create a painting with the same mood but that is different from the one they admired. This week I received an email from someone who liked my painting Mist Over Mt Tam. They asked me if I would do a painting of the mountain with a similar "peaceful mood". They wanted it as a gift for a friend who loved to hike on Mt Tam but who was leaving California to live across country. Mt Tam is a very imposing mountain in Marin County and in winter the peak is often shrouded in mist. It makes for a great painting subject. I am pleased with the results of this piece. It's a little abstract while still being recognizable. It's essentially different shades of gray. I used various shades of liquid graphite (comes in a tube) for most of the painting - I was pleased with the subtle textures it created. The trees and sky were painted with Payne's Grey watercolor. Painted on Arches hot-pressed watercolor paper. I always tell people I won't be offended if they don't like a piece because I can always put it up for sale. I almost want to keep this one myself though. I like the soft visual effect.

Golden Dreamscape

For this watercolor I wanted to achieve a tonalist look. I did a light pencil sketch then sprayed my hot-pressed paper all over with a squirt bottle. For the sky I did a Quinacridone Gold wash and then glazed over it while still wet with Daler Rowney's sepia ink watered down so that all it did was tone down the gold color. I added the same gold color to the bottom area, then painted over that with watered down acrylic green gold. I added the trees with sepia ink, which tends to run on a wet surface, making some nice soft edges.  I carried down the sepia to suggest tree roots and added granulation medium for texture. Size: 11.5" x 7.5"

Tangled Undergrowth

I'm still on a roll with watercolor texturing. I think I even prefer this one to the previous post, because the colors are more muted. I used Daniel Smith's perrylene green, transparent red iron oxide and Dailer Rowney's sepia acrylic ink. I used granulation medium on the sepia ink in the foreground which breaks up the ink and creates these wonderful textures.

Aftermath

I love experimenting with textures. A few of my favorite artists who use lots of texture are Ann Blockley, Jean Haines, and Australian watercolorist John Lovett. It's not as easy as it looks from their paintings. Ann Blockley creates such interesting paintings using lines and squiggles and watercolor mixed in with acrylic inks, gouache, granulation medium and plastic wrap. After much practice, I was quite pleased with this one. However, I made the mistake of using all warm colors and not having a contrast of warm against cool, so I glazed over the sky area with indanthrone blue mixed with alizarin, hoping it wouldn't ruin the piece. I think it worked. A good friend came up with the title for me. It does look like the aftermath of a big storm. I used acrylic inks and watercolors for this one. I'm enjoying exploring with mixed media for special effects.