9-12-13 Weekly Watercolor

Trio of Birch Trees, Cadillac Mountain
watercolor on paper, 5 x 7"

I knew the subject of this week's watercolor as soon as I spotted a trio of truncated birch trees on top of Mount Cadillac. The vegetation was quite striking at the top; the bronzy greens being set off by the pink marble rock. The stark white of the birch bark shone brightly, making up for the short stature of these birches. The dancing, playful quality of this trio was particularly alluring!

9-4-13 Weekly Watercolor

First Fruit, 7x5" watercolor on paper

Once again, I went only as far as my backyard to locate subject matter for my weekly watercolor. I particularly liked the way the shadows are playing in this image. The hosta blooms were an interesting challenge.
     As it turned out, I had to make an unexpected trip out to our lake place and watercolor proved its portability. I simply took the watercolor in progress and used all the "premixed" palettes (left from classes I teach, etc.) at Clover Slope Studio. There was a Copenhagen Blue which was pretty interesting for the shadows. Coming back to Lexington and Fourth Leaf Studio, this blue was diluted with premixed Prussian and French Ultra Marine Blue. All in all, this was a fun exercise.
     Something that came up in my last workshop; one of the participants insisted on using only 3 watercolors, a blue, yellow and red. She mixed all her colors from that. That is a challenge I will try soon with my weekly watercolors.
     This watercolor will be headed for the drawers in the back of MS Rezny Studio/Gallery. You can own it!