Abstract Landscapes In Watercolor

I  just published my sixth watercolor course. This one was by far the most popular with more than fifty signups the first day. I hit on a niche that seems to be popular - Abstract Landscapes In Watercolor. I have an introductory 25% off for this week if anyone is interested in doing the course - just click on the title in the text.

Spending my time off this week painting. Thought I would try something different and see if I can create a decent abstract. Much more difficult than painting an object or scene. I used watercolor, india ink, watercolor pencil and gold goauch pigment. Size 11" x 15".

Abstract Landscape Patterns

I love experimenting with textures. Have some old netting that I bought for this purpose. It worked out quite well in this piece. Also added a few scrapes with a sharp knife to create more texture.

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.

Reflections On Water

My latest Youtube video on how to paint reflections on water.  I do a different demonstration every two weeks, so if anyone is interested, please subscribe to my Youtube channel to be notified when new videos are uploaded. I had fun doing this. I used my favorite Saunders Waterford cold pressed paper and just three colors, raw sienna, burnt sienna and Paynes grey.

Painting a Fall Scene Demo

I recently did a Youtube how-to video on painting a simple Fall scene.  It was basically an exercise in choosing colors for a larger painting and how to keep your paintings loose. Hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please subscribe to my channel where you will get regular demonstrations on all things watercolor.

Monochrome Landscape

I paint most of my watercolors from imagination but I am influenced by the landscape around me. Every afternoon I take my dogs for a walk on the trail above where I live in Sausalito CA. Everything is already starting to turn brown even though we are not into Fall yet. I guess this is what I had in mind when painting this watercolor. Couldn't think up a better title so I'd love to hear some better suggestions.

I went out of my comfort zone to see if I could pull off painting a sunflower wet-in-wet. I probably chose one of the most difficult flowers to paint in this style. I filmed the process and have posted it on my Youtube channel for anyone who is interested. The colors I used were, winsor yellow, new gamboge, perylene green, perylen violet and a little transparent pyrrole orange - all Daniel Smith colors except for the winsor yellow. I enjoyed the experience and think I will continue practicing florals wet-in-wet.

Wild Grasses

Experimenting with different textures. For the orange background I used a netting material that I bought at a fabric store and in the foreground I dribbled granulation medium over sepia ink. Colors are Daniel Smith's quinacridone burnt orange and prussian green and Winsor & Newton's raw sienna for the sky area. Size: 10" x 8". http://www.jeanlurssen.com/

Serpentine Mountain

Here is my abstract version of Mt Tam. I used one of the techniques mentioned in Ann Blockley's latest book by using cling film over the wet paint to create texture. The colors I used were quinacridone burnt orange, Prussian green and quinacridone gold - with some sepia ink squeezed under the cling film to add more texture. I thought the textures came out quite well and gave the mountain nice contours while remaining abstract. As it happens the stone on Mt Tam is called serpenting stone and is this very color green. This piece made it into the exhibition.

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.

Golden Sunset

I'm really enjoying practicing my abstract landscapes inspired by my new Ann Blockley book. For this watercolor I did a number of glazes using brown madder, burnt sienna, Indian yellow and cobalt blue - just mixing them on the paper with no definite plan at first. While the paint was still wet I dropped in a sprinkling of Schmincke Tro-Col-Bronze in light gold - it's a powdered gouache. You can see the shimmer of the gold dust in the sky area. I then painted in the trees with sepia ink which mixed with the gold dust giving the trees quite a nice halo effect.

Tangled Woodland

I do like the color combinations in this watercolor experiment. I used quinacridone burnt orange, Prussian green and quinacridone gold. For the sky I used the same colors very diluted and added plastic wrap to the wet paint for subtle texture. The branches on the left were done with sepia ink. For the textures in the lower half I used cheese cloth and a really nice netting that I found at a local fabric store that had more uneven spaces. I tore and pulled it out of shape a little to get a more natural design. See photo below of the netting pattern. You can see the texture from this pattern in the gold and green areas of the painting. In the upper green area I used cheese cloth. Inspired by reading Ann Blockley and attempting to make it my own.

Windswept Hill

I have spent the last week or two reading my new Ann Blockley book, Experimental Landscapes in Watercolor. Ann is a master with innovative ways to create texture in watercolors. It's a wonderful book, full of creative ideas. I have also been practicing some of the techniques - which are more difficult than they seem. Hopefully I will be able to come up with a painting using some of these techniques soon. In the mean time, here is my latest atmospheric watercolor. I decided not to use too much texture since the focal point is the area of light where I used burnt sienna to draw the eye to this area of the painting.

Tangled Undergrowth II

It's been a while since I posted. Haven't had a lot of time to paint lately, much to my frustration. I thought I would try another abstract landscape with tangled branches and abstract plants. It helps me to loosen up. Not sure about this one, but I do like some of the colors. Maybe not enough plant life.

Autumn Symphony

It's that time of year again. One of the things I miss most since moving from the east to the west coast is how the leaves change color in the fall.  What I don't miss is having to rake them up - but it is a beautiful sight while it lasts.The photos of the different stages accidentally got deleted so I will describe them for you.

Stage 1:  I wet 140lb Saunders Waterford CP paper and painted a layer of aureolin randomly over the sheet.  Before it dried I splattered transparent yellow and quinacridone burnt orange mixed with aureolin into the wet paint for the first layer of texture and let this dry. 

Stage 2:  I proceeded to splash more Indian yellow, transparent yellow and a mixture of Quinacridone burnt orange and aureolin onto the sheet. I spritzed this lightly with a spray bottle which changes the round dots to random shapes that more resemble leaves. I let this dry completely. 

Stage 3: For the next to final stage I crumpled up some saran wrap into a ball and dipped it into all of the same colors - plus some Daniel Smith olive green to add some darks - and dabbed this all over the piece. When this was dry I brushed off the masking fluid and painted the tree trunks and branches with a mixture of quinacridone burnt orange mixed with French ultramarine which makes a very nice grey.  I added a few more dabs of paint to make the colors a little richer. The final step was making a darker mixture to paint the markings on the bark. 

Solitude II

I sold my painting Solitude this week and the buyer asked if I could do a companion piece with the same colors. He wanted me to come up with a design that would complement and somehow be an extension of the piece he bought. Never having done a commission before, and with nothing specific in mind, I was a little hesitant at first. Then I realized it would be a good exercise and if he did not like it, I could always offer it on my web site. It's not easy to recreate a mood and get the colors just right. The values are a little different in this piece, but that could be a good thing.  The pathway is designed to lead the eye towards the tree and for the buyer, also leads beyond to the lake and the hill with the cottage which is in the first piece he bought. I used indigo, burnt sienna and raw sienna in the sky and the same colors mixed with a little burnt umber for the land area. I'm also happy to say that the buyer's reaction was, "it was just what I was looking for as a companion piece," and now the two watercolors will hang side by side.

Wild Fennel

I just had to go back to using muted colors after my last exercise. It's more in my comfort zone. I'm sorry I didn't photograph this in the various stages to show how I painted this piece. I started out masking out the fennel flowers, drawing them very loosely with various dots of masking fluid and joined the dots together to give the appearance of fennel flower heads. I also masked out some branches and splattered some masking fluid randomly onto 140lb Fabriano cold pressed paper. Once dry I started adding the background colors of indigo and Daniel Smith's Pompeii red. After that dried I added more branches and spatterings with masking fluid. When dry I sprayed the watercolor in parts with water and added a darker shade of indigo mixed with a little alizaron into the wet areas and waited for it to dry. I then removed all the masking fluid and loosely wet the flowers and painted them first with Aureolin yellow and then, while still wet, I dropped in some transparent yellow to give them a bit of depth. These flowers are somewhat of a greeny yellow, leaning towards mustard color. I had to try out several yellows on a piece of scrap paper to get the right hue. Layering always helps to give a painting more depth.