The cabin we stayed at had an asterix because it was more of a lake house than a cabin. A cabin is four walls made from logs with a bed and a table inside. A lake house on the other hand has electricity, heating, running water, flushing toilettes and WiFi. Most people would pick the lake house version! To get to the cottage, there was a steep switch back road, you see it on the right half of the painting, with the driveway descending into the forest on the left half of the painting. The road was in pretty good shape since the town maintains it, and the cottage owners recently redid the driveway with tightly packed gravel. To paint this, the composition was key, capturing the swerving ess shape loading to the hairpin downward turn required some accurate brush work.
Switch back road, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024
Capturing a big tree on a small piece of paper is always an interesting challenge. I established the top portion of the tree first to get the shape right, than extended the trunk down as far as possible, using the background to indicate how tall the tree was. The bark of the tree was thick with a pale green moss or lichen that was flaking off. Impressionist-like brush strokes were used to fill in the rest of the textures. There are only about four paints used for something like this, yellow (PY154), green (PG36), dark green (PBk31) and red-brown (PR101).
Big tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024
The freshly painted yellow trim played well off of the faux-wood navy blue siding. A rustic fish carving, probably carved from an old wooden buoy or chunk of a dock sat next to the door, with its nose pointed to the lake.
Wooden fish near door, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2024
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