Fall Colors

It's that time of year again. I love painting the fall colors - reminds me of our time living in Virginia. I donated this watercolor to my local Marin Society of Artists for their annual auction fundraiser. Each time I paint one of these scenes I try out different colors. For this piece I first thoroughly wet the paper and then painted a very diluted wash of oreolin. After it was dry I spattered different combinations of color with different size brushes and then spritzed the spatters with water just slightly to give the spatters uneven shapes. When that was dry I dabbed the piece with scrunched up saran wrap dipped in different colors. I used cad red mixed with new gamboge, raw sienna mixed with burnt sienna, lemon yellow with burnt sienna, oreolin with burnt sienna, and for the browns, burnt sienna mixed with french ultramarine.  I was particularly please with how the brown worked out, also supplying the needed darks to the watercolor.

Lone Pine

The hills around Marin County turn a lovely wheaten color in summer. I have been trying to find ways to reflect them in an impressionist or atmospheric way in my watercolors.  Need a lot of practice still. I used burnt sienna, raw sienna Payne's grey and some sepia indian ink for the tree and darks. Also used granulation medium for the hill textures.

Autumn Glow

I had a few weeks of not liking anything that I painted - painter's block I guess.  So I was thinking how to change course and come up with something totally different. I was thinking of the time I lived on the east coast and how lovely the fall colors were. I still wanted my watercolor to be more representational than realistic though. I started out by masking the tree trunks and glazing the paper with a pale yellow, followed by lots of splattering with different shades of yellow.  When that was dry I removed the masking fluid and scrunched up some saran wrap, dipped it into various shades and dabbed them onto the page.  I'm pleased with the result and think it worked out well.

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.

Watercolorist Linda Kemp

One of the many watercolor books I've bought over the years is Linda Kemp's "Watercolor Painting Outside The Lines." I was so intrigued by her technique of negative painting that I had to try it. Her demonstrations make it look so easy, but I have yet to master the technique. I like her work so much that I wanted to share it with my fellow artists. This painting by Linda is an example of her technique.

Here also is a link to her website where you can see more of her paintings, view a short demonstration of negative painting, or order her DVD or best-selling book, and see her list of workshop schedules.

For a complete demonstration of two negative paintings - one a landscape and the other a Wisteria plant - scroll down at this site and look for her name. It is really worth watching all eight demonstration clips. It's a totally different approach to watercolor painting.