Low Tide

My first painting of 2015. Our house overlooks Richardson Bay and a spit of land called the Strawberry Peninsula.  I've wanted to paint an atmospheric watercolor of this scene for some time. I watch the tides come in and go out daily and it makes for an interesting subject. I was trying out some new Daniel Smith colors, particularly perrylene violet ,which dominates this painting. I  could have included some yachts but wanted to keep it a more quiet peaceful scene. I'm still thinking of maybe adding a few yachts though.

Overcast Morning

My plan was to paint a watercolor with mostly neutral colors and add a touch of yellow which I hoped would create a glow amongst the neutrals. The yellow ochre area started off as a piece of land, but with all the wet-in-wet I was doing, I thought it looked better as a water feature so I added a dark bank in the foreground and some reflections in the distance.  By reducing the yellow area it also enhanced what little color remained.  I think I will try this again and vary the scenes. I like the soft effect I achieved in this piece.

Marsh Sunset

This was another watercolor that was almost abandoned. I had worked the sky too much, adding too many glazes and it was rather boring.  I let it sit on my easel for weeks until I realized I had nothing to take to class Thursday. Since I had nothing to lose, I again took the magic eraser and gently scraped away a bit of the dark area in the sky for some lights to shine through and I added the M. Graham quanacridone rust in the lower half of the sky. I also decided it needed more reeds in the foreground to create more interest, so added those too. I'm rather pleased that I have been able to salvage two watercolors that otherwise would have gone on the trash pile.

Dune Evening

I haven't posted in a while - seems like in summer there are so many distractions. I was experimenting with different hues in this watercolor. I actually used opaque cadmium red in the sky, amongst other colors. It ended up being a little dark and I almost abandoned it. So with nothing to lose, I took the magic eraser, tore off a piece so I had an uneven surface, soaked it in water, rung it out and dragged it across the sky to create pieces of light filtering through. I was quite pleased with the result.