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.

Blackberry Season

When we take the dogs for a walk with the family on the local Oakwood Trail my grand daughter likes to pick the wild blackberries. She takes along a container to collect them in but by the end of the walk most of them end up being eaten rather than collected.  The prickly branches of the blackberry bushes grow every which way and I tried to convey that somewhat in this watercolor. Size is 11.5" X 7.5". I used Winsor and Newton's indian yellow and alizarin crimson and Daniel Smith's moon glow and quinacridone burnt orange.

Dandelion Heads

I have been practicing these dandelion heads for some time and only now have I managed something half decent.  Thought I would post this one even though there were a few things I could have done to make it more lively. I should have spattered masking fluid before starting to preserve some whites. And maybe cobalt blue would have been better than the indigo I used.  I will definitely work on perfecting the technique. I bought this great bottle of masking fluid by Daniel Smith that has different size applicator heads, including very fine ones for masking out the the fine white lines of the dandelion. Other colors I used were Daniel Smith's quinacridone gold by itself and mixed with alizarin crimson in areas. Lots of spattering and some salt also.

Last week I went to a demonstration of Daniel Smith watercolors and I must say I am quite smitten. They have some beautiful colors and I ended up spending way too much stocking up on a lot of their granulating colors because I love using textures in my watercolors. The representative from Daniel Smith told us that their watercolors have more pigment in them than other watercolors. They can also be resurrected after they have dried out. I tested this and the colors stay as vibrant. Quite impressed.