On My Back Door-Step #6

Bunch of Fireweek (#6)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in
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It's a rainy day and not good for watercolor painting outdoors. So I set up my painting gear in the light coming through the back door, put a handful of fireweed flowers into a Mason jar, and settled in. Indoors or out, I still have to record the image before the light moves, so once the pencil sketch was established, I applied paint just as loosely as I would do out of doors.
This painting is a great example of wet-into-wet washes, without doubt the loosest of watercolor painting techniques.
Wet daubs of pink blurring into pale green stripes give the gentlest of neutral shadow tones. A fat painty brushstroke touching into a clear water shape defines a flower form. Then there's the background, all water and paint with a characteristic back-flow effect revealing the blue and brown pigments that this gray was mixed with. Back-flows can be disastrous or very effective, and this painting has examples of both.
So be it.

On My Back Door-Step #5

Fireweed in Dappled Light (#5)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in
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Sunlight which is filtered through a canopy of trees reaches the ground in patches of various colors, depending on what happens with reflections and highlights and shadows.
Objects which are struck by this dappled light appear to lose their solid form due to these mottled highlights and shadows. The whole scene becomes a floating mass of light and color.
I tried to anchor this painting with the color of the fireweed blossoms, but I believe it is the mobile textures of branches and stems, leaves and foliage that have won out.
Makes for a lively painting, though!
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On My Back Door-Step #4

Fireweed and Branches (#4)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in
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Contrast. It's out there all around.
I didn't realize how much contrast I was dealing with until I started to get into it. As I set out my paints, I thought "Today I'm working with the contrast of complementary colors - the pink of the fireweed flowers against the green of the foliage."
Well, fine, but then there's the contrast of the small size of the pink area and all those masses of greens, and the contrast of the highlights in yellow-greens against the dark-olive shadows. And the contrast of the horizontal curves of the branches against the vertical curves of the stems and leaves. And the thickness of the tree trunk against those same slender stems.
Contrast? I got a lot more of it than I had bargained for... and you know the best part? The next time I go looking for contrast in a scene to paint, I will probably find even more to play with.
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On My Back Door-Step #3

Fence Rails and Bushes (#3)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in

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Creating a composition is a vital part of making an image. Composing a scene for a landscape photograph seems absurdly simple, you point the camera at what you want to capture, frame the scenery so it looks good, and - snap - press the button.

Well, it's another matter creating a composition for a landscape painting, plein air. First, there's so darn much scenery all around, it's easy to get distracted. And then, as you are glancing up and down from the vista to the painting, it's hard to keep your eye on the thing or things that attracted your attention in the beginning.

My problem-solving solution... ta-dah! the old trick of creating a composition using a viewfinder. From of a plain piece of paper, I cut out a rectangle with the same proportions as the paper I'm painting on. I peer through the cutout, and I can sketch my scene onto my paper with some accuracy. Once the main elements of the composition are in place, things are going to run a whole lot more smoothly.

Of course, there are many things about painting outdoors that a viewfinder won't help with, but it makes a good start!

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On My Back Door-Step #2

Fence Rails (#2)
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Watercolor on paper, 11in x 15in
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When I am making a painting outdoors under direct sunlight I see an incredible variety of colors.
Since I am using no intervening technology in the process of translating the scenery in front of my eyes into the paint I put onto the paper, I have no easy filtering or simplification of information, compared to painting indoors from a photograph.
Painting outdoors, I also see a massive variety of textures in the foliage, the grasses, bark, flowers and wood, which I depict in shapes and masses of lighter and darker tones of colors.
My first job is to make sense of what I am looking at, and my second job is to make my record of the scene comprehensible to someone else.
Practice, practice, practice.
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On My Back Door-Step #1

Birches in Sunshine #1

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Watercolor on paper, 11in x 15in

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I am such a sucker for a challenge.

So when that Ol' Pointy-Toe Boot of Patricia's nudged me into starting some new daily landscapes, I took the good advice (thank you!) and I got started.

This is a challenge to do 30 paintings on my back door-step, and by co-incidence the number matches with "30 Days Hath September," and so this is my September project.

For now, I am exploring with watercolor paints, on quarter-sheets of paper. The media may change during the month, but I have accepted the challenge, and I can't wait to see the results. What fun!

So, check back during the month of September and see the things I can see from my back door-step. I'll be out there with my paints every day, and if you're here, you can see the results!

Thanks!

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Art Every Day Month - November 6

Layers: Transparent Washes

Today for my "Art Every Day for the Month of November" challenge I laid down two washes of transparent color – viridian and prussian blue – with deliberate and accidental movements of paint on the paper, and with varying degrees of wetness and dry brushing.

What did I get? Lovely delicate marbled effects, abrupt patterning, and a jewel-like quality in the depth of color. See-through textures, mottled tones, and an underpainting that dissolved as the next layer went over it.

I also got a sense that however controlled I might want to be in applying it, the paint will create its own random characteristics as it dries on the paper. I just need to wait to see what it will look like.

And I needed to remind myself not to judge whether or not I like the effect until the painting has finished itself.