Armenia, World Inspired Landscapes (with Stoneground Paint Co)

Found deep in the foothills of Armenia on a winding hiking trail is a remarkable natural stone arch. Forged from the surrounding mountains, it curves gracefully over the trail, framing the picturesque mountain ranges in the distance. Like the other Wold Inspired Landscapes this one was created from extensive on-line and library research, which was compiled into an original drawing and watercolour painting. It seems like a great country to visit, located in Eurasia between the Middle East and Asia.

To do this painting I used 15 watercolour pans I just bought from Stoneground Paint Company, located in Canada. They make an incredible array of pigments in small batches, and sell them at reasonable prices in half, or full sized pans. A pan is a small plastic holder that has semi solid paint in it, as opposed to tubes which are more liquid, and are squeezed out as needed. I ordered their line of earth colours, and used them exclusively to make this painting. The coolest part was that one of the paints is called Armenian Purple Ochre, it is literally from clay earths mined in Armenia! I used it on the stone arch, in the sky, and on the mountain in the distance. Most of these paints have a natural sparkle, when I tilt the painting in the sun, the whole thing sparkles like a real rocky, sandy terrain. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, May 2020 (B side of Ranger Park).

Here is a test of all 15 pigments, so you can see what they look like. They are all amazing! They also came in a nice metal case and fantastic packaging, not to mention a thank you note. So Canadian ; )

The colours are going left to right top: raw umber green shade (PBr7), raw umber neutral shade (PBr7), grey ochre, titanium buff (PW6:1), felsite (PY43), lemon ochre (PY43), light yellow ochre (PY43), raw sienna warm shade (PBr7), mars orange (PY42), Pozzuoli red earth (PR102), burnt sienna deep crimson (PBr7), Armenian purple ochre (PR102), nicosia green earth (PG23), antica green earth (PG23), Roman black (PBk11).