Thursday, June 23, 2011


I am teaching a 3-day Watercolor Workshop for Adults and Teens at the Y Arts Studio Aug. 9, 10 & 11, 7:00pm - 9:00pm. This workshop focuses on painting flowers and foliage. The description from the YMCA program guide is below. All Arts programming is open to YMCA members and Non-members an art supplies are included in class fee.

Watercolor: Learning To Paint Flowers and Foliage
Learn to capture the beauty of flowers in watercolor; vibrant sun-dappled colors and delicate overlapping petals against lush vegetation.
We will be using various techniques including wet on wet, dry brushing, positive and negative shapes and creating textures.
Each class will also have some basic drawing instruction for those students wishing to improve their drawing skills.

$49 Members; $59 Non-Members

Monday, June 6, 2011

Watercolor Part Three



To finish the painting I added bare tree branches in the foreground, added a few short branches to the fallen logs in the stream and a few reflections in the water. Note that the water was never painted; it is implied by the reflections and the abstractions which were the result of the initial wash over the crinkled tissue paper.
The tree in foreground on the left side was darkened because it's brighter color was distracting to the early morning misty mood that I was trying to create.

Watercolor Demo Part Two



Using combinations of greens, blues and reds and a touch of yellow I created all of the colors used in this painting. I varied the amounts of colors each time I mixed a new shade so that subtle variations are found in each color. The light misty quality was achieved by using very thin washes of color. Gradually a few more solid trees were added closer to the foreground to help create a sense of depth within the painting. Land masses were added as well to "anchor" the trees.

Watercolor Demo Part One


This blog is a continuation of my watercolor demo from the last two classes of the Spring II Session at the Y.

I started with a watercolor wash over crinkled tissue paper, to take advantage of the natural veining which occurs as the watercolor seeps through and then pools around the crinkles. This technique adds abstract areas of interest and texture within a landscape.

After the paper was dry, I lightly sketched in the main subjects; a few bare trees and some large areas to represent groups of trees with foliage. No details.

I added thin washes of colors (greens and blues slightly altered by adding a bit of red to neutralize the colors.) over the main shapes, which are the contours created by the large areas of trees. The washes were thin so that the crinkle pattern would still show through.

The tree trunks were painted with a combination of green, blue and red to create a dark neutral. Dark blue mixed into the neutral to create shadows. The shadows were painted onto the trees when the paper was wet so that the darker tones would diffuse randomly into the lighter neutral.