Mexican El Fresco (watercolor 10 x 13) $150.00
Another cityscape from downtown Portland. The day and the palette are the same. The light and consequently the painting couldn’t be more different.
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August 18, 2010 10:20 am
May 8, 2010 11:22 am
Through the Bamboo Grove (watercolor 17 x 23) $300
As promised, here is a larger more finished version of the Bamboo Grove. I left the composition pretty much as it was in my little postcard painting, but I greatly increased the contrast by darkening the shadows and underbrush.
This time I poured the painting. Pouring watercolor is a process much like batik.
I began by making a value sketch of the painting in graphite. I transferred my sketch to the watercolor paper with graphite paper. Then I used liquid mask to save all of the white highlights. In this case highlights were thin strips of light on the edge of the bamboo, and the ridges where the sections of bamboo meet.
Once the painting was masked, I mixed three colors of paint very thinly in cups: cadmium yellow, new gamgee, and phthalo blue. I wet the painting and then poured the paint out of the cups across the paper working from left to right and sloping downward. I poured the yellows first then the blue.
After the painting was dry I masked all of the pastel values, mostly sky and unshadowed path and poured again. This time I used hansa light and new gamgee for the yellows and both phthalo and cobalt for the blues. I added quinacridone deep red rose too. I mixed all of the colors more thickly than on the previous pour. I used very little red and tried to isolate it on the bottom on the picture.
I repeated the mask and pouring process two more times masking two sets of medium values. The last time I poured only shadows and underbrush.
After the painting had dried completely, I removed the mask and assessed the results. I had beautiful varied greens in the bamboo and nice dark shadows, but bamboos were mostly one value and looked flat. I darkened the rear bamboo, and shadowed the sides of the bamboo to round it. I dropped some color into the highlights on the path and added some blue to the sky. I soften the skyline foliage and varied the greens a little there. I had left a roadway from my reference photo running across the painting just below the skyline foliage. I decided that that was a distraction and painted it out.
November 29, 2009 2:33 pm
Shadows Glass and Leaves (12 x 14) $100.00
Driving down Commercial last summer, I was struck by the shadows of leaves on a stucco building. I reached for my camera and discovered I’d left it at home. I drove home hurriedly to get it. My daughters in the back seat were remarkable patient with me as I drove round the block twice looking for a parking space. Only eight or nine pictures later did it dawn on me what I was photographing. It’s a local mortuary. Never mind, the shadows and the glass bricks were beautiful.
The shapes were so simple that I drew them freehand onto the watercolor paper.
Most of the painting was done in what I think of as controlled wet-into-wet painting. First I moistened the the small area I wanted to paint and then I dropped the wet color in. I created each glass brick this way. After the paint dried I went back with a wet brush and added the darker shadows to each brick. I used phthallo blue, cobalt blue, cadmium yellow, and yellow ocher.
The shadows on the wall are two separate layers of controlled wet into wet. The first layer was phthallo blue, deep red rose quinacridone, dull a hair with cadmium yellow. The second layer was cobalt blue and deep red rose.
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August 18, 2009 8:13 pm
Which Century (11 x 13) $125.00
We recently visited Central City, Colorado. Like many “ghost towns” across the country, tourism has kept the once bustling mining town alive. When I was girl the historic downtown was wall to wall novelty and gift shops broken only by cheap restaurants. Tourist straggled up and down the steep streets buying post cards of jackalopes, shiny cedar boxes and souvenir spoons.
Most of the novelty shops are gone now. Casinos dominate the downtown now. The streets are quiet because the tourists are mostly inside the casinos gambling. But unlike in the 1800s the gamblers are senior citizens bused in rather than rough neck miners. I find it an ironic return to the past. But I liked the bustling streets better.
I still like the old downtown, and I took many pictures for future paintings. This one is of the Coyote Creek Casino and the Century building. My question is which century, the 19th, the 20th or the 21st? All three centuries are mingled in the Victorian building with 20th century signs and air-conditioning, and 21st century computers.
The light cast lovely shadows on the century building, but the bright light flattened the casino. After some thought, I added some shadow to the casino. I think it works a little better particularly on the upper story.
