Moonlight on Richardson Bay

  
When the full moon shines over Richardson Bay in Sausalito it creates wonderful reflections on the water. I've always wanted to capture this in a watercolor but wasn't too confident I could pull it off successfully until I found a demonstration recently in a book published in 1973 called The Watercolor Painting Book. It had a section on how to paint moonlight. I used the technique described to capture the view I have from my deck at night. I used the colors suggested in the book which were hooker's green, French ultramarine and burnt sienna. Size is 14" x 10".

Overcast At The Shore

We take our dog to Rodeo Beach, one of our local unspoiled beaches in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Often, in the morning, the fog comes in and creates a fine mist that makes everything look almost monotone and out of focus.  It's really beautiful. In this watercolor I tried to create the misty atmosphere. It was a good exercise in attempting to paint an atmospheric watercolor. I will have another crack at this because I think I can improve on it - I hope. I was pleased with the colors. Size is 14" X 10".

Savannah Dawn

In this watercolor I was attempting to capture the vastness of the African Savannah, interrupted only by the lovely Acacia trees which grow throughout Sub Saharan Africa. The terrain is pretty flat, save for these beautiful and uniquely-shaped trees - also known as thorn trees. The Savannah is mostly hot and dry so plants must find ways to retain moisture. Acacias have evolved to do this, by having their leaves divide into dozens of tiny leaflets which can be held horizontally to capture sunlight or vertically to reduce transpiration. I used an indirect glazing method for the sky. Maggie Latham made me realize I forgot to post the materials I used. This was painted on Arches hot-pressed paper using thin glazes of raw sienna, light red, cobalt blue and burnt sienna. The trees and foreground were painted using burnt umber mixed with French ultramarine. I also dropped some  light red into the foreground.

Cottages On The Hill

I'm on an English country scene kick. Mainly because I love the quaint little old cottages one finds in the English countryside. They evoke an atmospheric feeling that I like to create in watercolor.  When I first painted this it was without the tree and broken fence. During critique in class Jerry Still felt it needed the tree and fence to frame the subject and tie the sky to the land area.  I really don't like to go back and "fix" a watercolor because I usually end up ruining it. I need to do this over because I really don't like the tree. This was my third try after erasing the previous two with "magic eraser" - wonderful stuff for fixing a watercolor.  Anyway, a third rub will probably make a hole in the paper, so I need to start from scratch. It will be a good exercise.  I was very pleased with the foreground though. Hope I can repeat it. Size: 14" x 11" on Arches hot pressed paper. I used windsor green, raw sienna, burnt umber, burnt sienna and black india ink.

Solitude

Well I have not posted in a while. Had a few dry weeks when nothing went well.  As you know, I like creating atmospheric scenes and this one is of a quiet landscape in the English Lake District. There are lovely old cottages dotted around the area, sometimes evoking a feeling of remoteness. There is something very peaceful about these scenes that appeals greatly to me. I used indigo, raw sienna, light red and burnt sienna on quarter sheet of 140lb Arches hot pressed paper.

Before The Storm

We have had some real stormy weather lately. Since I love painting atmospheric conditions, I decided to give a try at painting a stormy sky. I painted this on a quarter sheet of hot pressed Arches watercolor paper using raw sienna, burnt umber and Payne's grey. I decided not to put too much detail in the foreground because it could have distracted attention from the main focus of the sky. I always like the effect of a limited palette. I will see what kind of critique it gets in art class Thursday.

Critique:
Jerry Stitt does his critiques based on the elements and principles of design. Overall his critique was favorable. He liked the looseness and drama of the sky and the fact that it had good color harmony. At the end of his critiques always comes the question, "what would make this a better painting?" He is big on having an opposite thrust to create tension in a piece. So because this has a dominant horizontal thrust he suggested a large vertical thrust of perhaps a tree in the foreground or even telephone poles. Having said that the class discussed that in this particular piece it would distract from the central focus of the sky and he agreed. As he often says, the elements and principles of design are just guidelines and not rules and you have to know when you can ignore them.

Marsh Light

I'm a great admirer of the Tonalist painters. The Wikipedia definition of this style says "Tonalism (1880 to 1915) is an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Dark, neutral hues, such as gray, brown or blue, would usually dominate such compositions. Two of the leading painters associated with this style are George Inness and James McNeill Whistler." Most of the tonalist artists were oil painters and since I love watercolors and want to stay with this medium, I try every now and then to create tonalism in my watercolor landscapes. I love the mood it creates and the harmony it brings to a painting. I was quite pleased with this attempt, inspired by the marshes in Mill Valley, CA, near where I live. I first did an underpainting of raw sienna on Arches hot-pressed watercolor paper. Over that I painted the sky with brown madder, burnt sienna and cobalt blue grayed with a little Payne's gray. The marsh was painted using burnt umber, burnt sienna and Payne's grey. I had to go over the sky with a glaze of cobalt blue to tone it down to achieve the atmospheric look I wanted. Size: 13.5" x 10".

First Snow - Holiday Greetings

Thought this would be an appropriate subject for the holiday season. I was practicing painting winter landscapes and tried a technique I found in one of my watercolor books "Watercolor Painting Techniques". A watercolor by Zoltan Szabo shows a technique to depict this snow scene. I was pleased with the result so decided to post it. I changed my piece around a bit and added foreground scrub and a darker effect with the trees and background. Watercolors used were burnt sienna mixed with French ultramarine for the sky and distant trees and Antwerp blue mixed with burnt sienna for the foreground trees, then sprinkled with salt for the snow effect. Size: 10" x 6.5".

I wish all my fellow bloggers a very happy holiday weekend and much joy and prosperity for 2011.

First Light

We have been experiencing the most incredible skies early in the morning lately. Fortunately I get up early enough to see them. For this watercolor I did an underpainting with raw sienna and then used brown madder and French ultramarine mixed with a little payne's grey. I really like the effect the limited palette provides. Size: 12" x 8".

Dusk In The Headlands

Back to my atmospheric watercolors. I like trying out different color combinations to create the atmospheric feel in my watercolors. I love the work of Caroline Simmill and the colors she used in wash #4 for the One Hundred Washes blog challenge. When I tried painting with these colors I could not get them dark enough, even though I used ivory black. For this watercolor I used raw sienna and indigo (which when combined with other colors makes nice darks) and a little burnt sienna on the foreground hill.
Size: 10.5"x9".