Lone Cypress

I painted this watercolor a few months ago but didn't particularly like it so I put it away. My efforts to produce a painting for class this week failed, so I dug this watercolor out of my draw and took it along. Well, to my surprise our instructor, Jerry Stitt, raved about it.  And the rest of the class loved it too. That got me wondering what it was that I didn't like about it. I guess it's just a case of not being painted in my usual, more atmospheric style. It also got me wondering whether I should be considering what others like about my paintings - with a view to selling.  It's a loaded subject. It feels good when I paint something I like and the hope is that a few other people will like it too - maybe even enough to buy the piece. My watercolors that have sold were a mix of what I like painting and some where I was trying other styles with my watercolors. I guess there is always someone out there that will like something you do. I try to marry the skills of painting with marketing my work, but it takes so much of one's time that it's not always easy to balance the two.

A Quiet Place

I took this painting to class last week and the criticism was that the darks needed to be joined, otherwise it was too spotty. Another criticism was that the two pieces of land on either side in the distance were too similar.  I like the watercolor the way it was - because I feel I created this peaceful isolated scene. A  point Jerry always makes in class is that the elements and principles of design are guidelines and not rules. I always try to be mindful of that when creating my watercolors but in this instance I broke the rules and am happy with the results.

Wild Fennel

Going outside my comfort zone again to have another stab at painting flowers. I love the wild fennel that grows so plentifully around our area. The background around the yellow flowers is not in contrast enough to make them pop. I should have used a violet hue - the compliment of yellow - to make the flowers pop more. I always have problems with the backgrounds when trying to paint flowers in watercolors - not in choosing the color, but actually painting it. These particular flowers are made up of little dots and it is difficult to paint around them afterwards without it looking like a deliberate outline around the flowers. To get color vibration going the background color needs to be of the same value as the yellow of the flowers, which would have made it difficult to put the background in first without making the yellow flowers look dull. 

Dawn Light

I decided this week to paint the same picture (more or less) from both a vertical and horizontal viewpoint. It sometimes helps to decide which is the better format. I also painted the vertical on hot pressed paper and the horizontal on cold pressed paper. I took them both to class and the consensus was that the horizontal was a better painting, the reason being that in the vertical I virtually divided the painting in half, something one should avoid. Of course there is an easy fix, to just crop the vertical watercolor but what I liked about it was the texture in the hills, which works much better for me on hot pressed paper. I am going to repeat the horizontal on hot pressed paper because I do like that format better.

Mt. Tam By Day and Night

I managed to get two paintings done this week. I decided to do the same subject with two different moods. Mt. Tam is situated in Marin County not far from where I live.  The purpose of this first exercise was to experiment with texture, What better subject to choose - hence the closeup view.  With so much texture going on in the mountain area, I decided to keep the sky very bland so as not to fight with, or detract from the textured area. Painted on hot  pressed paper, the watercolors I used were, burnt umber mixed with a little Paynes grey, raw sienna and a very small amount of the sky color which was indigo, to carry the color into the rest of the painting for harmony.  I dribbled granulation medium on the wet paint on the lower part of the mountain and let it run down the page. It is often hit or miss using this technique. The key is using colors that granulate well and not using too much granulation medium.  In the watercolor below I tried to capture the mountain by moonlight using various blues, with a hint of warm color picked up from my palette.

Textured Woodland

This is my first painting of  2012 and I was really pleased with the results first time off. I am trying hard to paint loosely. I like the semi abstract style with just suggestions of what the subject is. I bought an incredible book by Ann Blockley called "Watercolour Textures". She uses interesting techniques to create textures, including watercolor pencils, oil pastels, inktense blocks, india ink etc. Her style is loose and dramatic. I was so impressed with the book that I ordered one of her DVD's so I could see her at work. I am really inspired. I have learned so much from both the book and the DVD.  It has helped me to look at how I approach painting a subject in a totally different way. I am taking this one to class tomorrow for review. I painted this watercolor on Arches hot pressed paper using indian yellow, neutral tint, burnt sienna, sepia ink and green gold  - a new color I tried - which was used in the trees.

Tomales Bay

Tomales Bay is about an hour drive from our house. It is another largely unspoiled area with large parts belonging to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It's great that these areas are protected from developers. We have many unspoiled open spaces within driving distance. My paintings are usually all about the skies, but I also like to include local scenery. I used a limited palette of indigo, yellow ochre and burnt sienna on hot pressed paper. Took it to class yesterday and all Jerry said was "sign it."

Rodeo Lagoon

 

There are a number of lovely unspoiled beaches that belong to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Rodeo beach in Marin County is one of them. As you enter the beach you cross over the lagoon on a small foot bridge.The area is also a bird sanctuary where you can watch egrets, seagulls and ducks and many other birds feed on the rich sea life. I used artistic license with the colors in the marshy landscape. My colors were raw sienna, burnt sienna, indigo and French ultramarine on Fabriano cold pressed paper. I really like the way the colors came out on the Fabriano paper. I think I will buy more of this. I never get results like this on Arches cold pressed paper. That's why I always tend to use Arches hot pressed watercolor paper. On cold pressed the colors seem to soak into the paper and the end result after drying looks washed out. I need to experiment more with different watercolor papers.

Winter Scenes

With winter approaching and all the snow storms back east I decided it was time to do a snow scene. I did the first watercolor on Arches hot pressed paper and the second on Arches cold pressed. I took them to class for critique this week and Jerry Stitt said he felt the snow was too gray and too warm. He thinks snow should be bluer, which he said makes it look colder. He also suggested a verticle behind the shed in the top painting, maybe a windmill or water tower. He always drums into us that you need an opposite thrust to create interest in a painting. I may add this piece soon and will repost it if I do. He also felt that the large tree in the second one was too uniform.  I should have know better on that one, since we are always being told that uniformity is monotonous. He did like the sky in the second painting though.  I personally prefer the first painting because it is more atmospheric and more in my style of painting. I used only three colors for both pieces, French ultramarine, Payne's Grey and light red.

More Flowers

I wanted to try another loose flower watercolor since I really need practice in this area. I'm not a realistic painter, I like to do representational flower pieces. I recently bought two books by Ann Blockley, one titled Watercolour Textures and the other, Experimental Flowers In Watercolour.  They are both great books full of wonderful examples for creating texture in watercolors and painting loosely. They inspired me to try this watercolor. I took this painting to class for critique by Jerry Stitt. He liked the texture in the green area which was accomplished by flicking dark paint into the wet watercolor, then using crumpled tissue paper to create the illusion of leaves and greenery. When painting this I was mindful of something Jerry always tells us, "the fewer shapes the better". So although you see three flowers here, they overlap to form one shape. He said that if I had made them separate flowers the painting would have looked spotty.  I was also mindful to make each flower a different size - another point that is is always drummed into us. Whether it be flowers or trees or houses, vary the shapes so they don't become boring. I painted this watercolor on Arches hot pressed paper using scarlet lake, brown madder, windsor green (yellow shade) and burnt sienna.