I did this quick demonstration on my YouTube channel after showing how to build a quick table easel with three different heights. I was tired of using upturned yoghurt cups and anything I could find to prop up my watercolors while painting wet-in-wet. Finally got around to creating a useful tabel easel.

Natures Templates

I'm always on a quest to find unique ways to create textures in my paintings and techniques that help to create abstract landscapes in watercolors. After some experimentation, here is a  short Youtube video on my experiments in using nature's templates to create interesting textures in watercolors. Explore ways to use these templates to create abstract watercolor landscapes. I hope you find this useful and would love to hear your comments.

My latest YouTube video covers using neutrals in watercolor and painting abstracts. I was surprised at the number of visits it received. Made me realize I need to create a course in abstract painting. I also shared my latest brush purchases. I painted this particular abstract using very watered down mixtures of Payne's grey, and indigo mixed with burnt sienna.I used a little salt in the bottom left area and the darks were made by using black indian ink, which always creates an interesting result when the watercolor repels the ink.  It flares out in all directions. For the fine white lines I used a white fine jelly roll pen.

Through The Mist

I haven't painted in a while because I was too busy creating how-to courses. Decided today was time to paint again. It was great getting back in the painting groove and doing something really loose and semi-abstract. I am working on being more abstract with my landscapes. I always admire the work of artists who paint interesting abstract landscapes - something I wish I was better at. Well, it makes life interesting when you make your craft a continual learning experience.

Stormy Sky

I am in the process of creating a new video course on how to paint dramatic skies. This is the painting that I am demonstrating. I am quite pleased with how it came out. I was going to add some distant trees on the right but decided against it at the last minute. Still not sure if that was the right decision. Would love some opinions on this.

Evening Glow

Painted this quick demo as part of my latest Youtube video on watercolor choices for beginners. Anyone interested can find the video at at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeoS4QBSfWc

Desert Sunset

Back to glazing again. I love painting layers and layers of thin watercolors to create a glowing effect. I also love painting sunsets, which lend themselves to this layering effect. I used new gamboge, transparent pyrrol orange and a new color for me, permanent brown, all of these are Daniel Smith colors. Permanent brown is actually a lovely deep red color. I painted this on Saunders Waterford cold pressed 140lb paper. I really love the way this paper takes color.

Solitude

This is a place in Cumbria, England called Grange Over Sands. The photo below is courtesy of a cousin. I liked the peaceful scene but wanted to change the colors to create a more atmospheric feeling to the place. Hope I achieved this. Artistic license is a liberating feeling.

Dreamscape II

First painting of the new year. Feeling inspired. Trying out new colors and textures - having fun. Painting is great therapy. It's my way to relax.  Just wish I was better at coming up with good titles for my paintings. Something I need to work on this year. For the trees in this watercolor I used transparent red oxide and for the grays in the foreground I used cobalt blue + aureolin yellow + rose madder genuine. I am pleased with the results. Trying to keep my watercolors loose.

Dreamscape

After spending the last few months creating my how-to painting videos I finally got down to painting again. I decided to try using colors I had never used before and see if I could incorporate them into a landscape. I think it worked for this imaginary landscape and I am pleased with the results. I used phthalo turquoise, transparent red Iron oxide and quinacridone burnt scarlet. Then while still wet, used some cling film to create the textures in the foreground. For sale on my web site at http://thewatercolorist.net/dreamscape/

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.

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.

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

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.

Through The Woods

This watercolor was inspired by a black and white photograph - a good exercise in being creative with color. The photo was also a good guide for the lights and darks. I took a lot of artistic license changing shapes and leaving out a water scene in the background and replacing it with distant trees. I used quinacridone gold, cadmium yellow, cobalt blue and Prussian blue and sepia ink for the textures in the foreground.

Last Glow Of Sunset

I was aiming for a tonalist look in this watercolor, using a number of glazes to achieve the result I wanted. It's easy to do too many glazes and ruin the painting by overworking it, or too few and not quite achieving one's goal. I'm a great admirer of the tonalist painters who mostly painted in oils. Tonalism was eventually eclipsed by impressionism and European modernism." I love trying to create atmosphere in my watercolors. The colors I used were quinacridone gold, brown madder, neutral tint, transparent pyrrol orange, Payne's grey and burnt umber. Also some sepia ink for the texture in the foreground.

Nightfall

It was very difficult getting the colors right for this posting. The watercolor is actually a little darker than it appears here, especially in the foreground. I wanted to paint an atmospheric night scene using a range of blues. It took about ten coats of glazing to get to this stage. I almost abandoned it halfway through because it looked uninteresting. For the last stage I decided to take a rough painters brush and using Daniel Smith's indanthrone blue mixed with neutral tint I swept the brush back and forth and left it to dry. I think it really made the sky come to life.  I then had to come up with something interesting to paint in the bottom third of the painting. It had to be something simple that did not detract from the sky, which I wanted to be the focus of the watercolor. I was pleased with the end result of this piece. Size is 14" x 10". I used indigo, French ultramarine, indanthrone blue and neutral tint for the sky, and burnt sienna with French ultramarine, raw sienna and a little sepia ink for the land area.

Color Selections

 I often do small sketches to try out different techniques and color combinations before starting a larger painting. The one above is 5" x 7". I was playing around with the new acrylic inks that I bought and was experimenting mixng them in with regular watercolors. The cliff is made up mostly of the acrylic inks. The watercolor below is just a little larger but was also done to test color selections. I find it very useful to do these small sketches.  It also is a good exercise in loosening up because I do them rather quickly. I usually use these as greeting cards for family and friends. I cut and fold watercolor paper a little larger than the sketch and then glue the painting to the front of the card. My friends and family love getting these original greeting cards. However, I really like these two and decided to put them up for sale on my web site.

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.