Tag: leaves

Hello Fall

Hello Fall - Clayton Home School
22”w x 15”h watercolor & acrylic on 140lb WC paper (deckled edges). Stepping out of your car at school a breeze comes up and says, “Hello Fall!” in a most colorful fashion.

You can see I started with the sky, the tree and the basic lines of the architecture shape to follow. The sky was a bright yellow where the sun peeked over the roof line but otherwise it was sparsely clouded and light as you look higher. Putting the large maple tree on the left takes a large part of the composition area.

HelloFall_Clayton Home School 01The architectural parts of this old beauty of a school, were a bit of a challenge to sort through. What details to drop an which to keep, so that the painting could be done in a reasonable amount of time. Making a texture that would accurately show the brick took a little bit of trail and error.

This was all followed by leaves up close then lots of them in the background in the breezes.

Rose Trio

A rose trio is the next blossom subject for me in watercolor. The question is, can I realistically render three different colored roses?

Rose Trio 02After rendering a “Sharon” rose, I felt inspired. The next morning I did a search and rescue mission for photographic images to work with on my computer and phone.  Finding 3 separate pictures that I liked from my garden last year, I sketched a layout for them and here we go. A multi-colored one, a white, and one yellow blossom. You can see from the image above how I begin by applying a dark wash to where I see the shadows on each of the petal surfaces.  Then, I can add some of the gorgeous colors, layer after layer.
Rose Trio 03

The multi-colored one on the top left gets yellow, then Opera Pink, some alizarine crimson, and darkened more with dioxin purple. Purple also shows me where shadows are darkest in the background.

Rose Trio 04

The white is a long-lasting blossom named, “Abraham Lincoln”.  Each Presidential petal base has a slight touch of tan shade at the base. A tiny touch of Azo yellow is added to show this subtle color change. The yellow rose is brought to life with more yellow and small touches of burnt amber.

Rose Trio 05The yellow beauty in the front is from my spice garden. It may have survived the fire, but we won’t know until things warm up in spring. The name tag for the yellow rose is long gone. I darken the background using blues, greens, and splashes of alizaron crimson with purple.

Rose Trio 06

The colors used as a background are purposely not boring and rendered in a fun wet-on-wet texture. I only want to hint at the dense foliage behind. Remember that, roses are one thing that always brings joy. If I am holding them, smelling them, looking at them in person, or painting/drawing them there is most likely a smile on my face.

 

Huckleberry Watercolor

Next

Here is another study of huckleberry watercolor paintings. Loose backgrounds paired with detailed treatments to the berries are what I am experimenting with. “Why is that?”, you may ask. Ultimately, it is the berries I am looking for when I am up there. Blurred backgrounds and focus on the berries are my way of trying to produce that same reality. While hiking, my eyes constantly rove left and right searching for a particular shade of purple.

HuckBerryWetI2819
9″h x 12″w watercolor of five huckleberries that are wet

Hiking to Pick

Secondly, hiking I love, but berry-picking while hiking is like having your cake and eating it too! Add a camera into the mix and we start to use words like heaven to describe the outing.

These berries love steep ground, or ground that has seen a lot of abuse. We find them where a wildfire has cleared and left the rich ash on the ground for regrowth. Also, we tend to find them where select logging has cleared areas so the shrubs on ground level get more light. I always notice a lot of logs to step or climb over as we spend a day discovering these tasty little gems. Additionally, we use our nose to find huckleberries. These berries  have such a sweet smelling aroma that drifts on the breeze as you walk. Sometimes, we just follow our nose and find them. This is a short video of a place I picked some berries up at 49 Degrees North Ski Resort this year.

Today, I had been scheduled to be an artist vendor at the “Huckleberry Festival which is put on by the Roosevelt Inn” in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Unfortunately, stuff happens and I am unable to be there. The Inn is a great historical building (red brick school building) in the heart of downtown Coeur d’Alene just one block above the Hitching Post. If you are in the neighborhood please go check it out. After all, this show is my inspiration to do huckleberry image studies in the first place.