Winter Glow

More experimenting with acrylic inks. I feel I need a lot of improvement still and need to branch out a bit. I do like the colors in this experiment though. For any of you who have never seen Ann Blockley's acrylic ink paintings, they are definitely worth a visit, as is all of her work.  Click on her name to go to her blog post. There is a lovely acrylic ink painting just below the post for her latest book - which I will definitely order. She is a great inspiration for the kind of watercolors I like painting.

Mystic Glade

I was lucky enough to get two nice gift certificates for Christmas to my favorite local art store. It is fun to browse around and buy materials for experimenting without having to be conscious of the cost. In 2013 I started to experiment with acrylic inks and had some successes which I have posted previously on my blog. I bought a few more colors this year and was excited to do more experimenting. The first two attempts were not that successful, but I was pleased with this third try. I found that it worked better if I applied a layer of gesso to the watercolor paper and let it dry before applying the inks.  Playing around like this really helps one loosen up.

Morning Glow

Trying different color combinations with glazing. The sky is a mixture of indigo and Indian yellow. I was pleased with the effect of the glow in the lower sky that one can sometimes see when the sun rises in the morning. The hills and trees are mixtures of burnt sienna and ultramarine and some acrylic sepia ink and some dribbling of granulation medium.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Twighlight Hour

Another watercolor using multiple glazes to achieve the effect I was aiming for. I'm going back to glazing for now because I enjoy building up a watercolor with multiple glazes and slowly seeing the depth of the piece come to life. I sold a number of watercolors this month using this technique. They all also are paintings of sunsets, dawn and sunrise. For this watercolor I used raw sienna, indanthrone blue,  transparent red iron oxide and burnt umber. Size is 12.5" x 9.5"

Dusk

I did multiple glazing for this watercolor to achieve the depth you can only get through this method of painting. The piece was inspired by scenes of the African Savannah, with it's vast unspoiled areas of grassland dotted with acacia trees that are indigenous to the area. For those who follow my blog on a regular basis, you know by now that I love to paint tonal landscape scenes depicting dusk, sunrise, sunset or dawn. I love the light at that time of day. I was rather pleased with the end result of this watercolor.

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.