On my way to make a painting I stopped under a tree at Reno Depot to wait out a brief rain storm. I took the opportunity to paint part of the facade, including their flower pot display and the tops of the greenhouse enclosure, along with the rolling dark clouds. To paint bright colours like this, I start with a greyish wash around the area, then dab in the greens, red, oranges and yellows on the blank paper. Using this method ensures a consistent grey background that will make the colours pop. In watercolour, if you paint the grey everywhere, there is no way to apply bright colours or white over top of it without using gauche or some gimmicky thing. Maybe its just me being stubborn or traditional or whatever, but when an artist says they did a watercolour it should be a watercolour. Adding gauche makes it mixed media. The worst case I saw of misrepresentation was a watercolour magazine where the artist had to photoshop one of the elements on the last step because they messed up the first step. It was a scene of two people walking through a bamboo forest, one was holding a bright pink umbrella. On the first step, the artist applied a dark green with phthalocyanine pigments, and right away I thought, its impossible to paint bright pink on top of that. Well, impossible without photoshop!
Rain Clouds and Flower Pots, watercolour 5 x 7" 80lb, May 2024 (No. 3771a)
Clouds and Flower Pots, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024
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