This challenging painting was done down in Verdun by the bike path. Cilei and Fritz and I went for a walk with Davidson and I stopped to make this one real quick. It was more technical than I thought and had to rush through a bit, there was a veritable wall of foliage with the twisting turning birch branches. TO paint 'white' spaces in traditional watercolour one has to leave the paper showing. That makes birch trees the hardest kind of tree to paint especially with all the little branches and textures. Their shadow side takes on a fascinating metallic grey, and glowing orange-yellow highlights or even burnt sienna can be seen depending on the age of the tree. The waterfront here can not be seen, I was standing down on the other side of the bike path trying to avoid people, and the strong sun. Maybe the pandemic is over now, but I'm not taking any chances. Still it all looks to be going right, hopefully we can get back to normal.
Update: The spreadsheet shows this is the 3000th painting I have done!
Birch Trees Verdun, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, June 2021 (No. 2683a)
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