…a mixed bag of plein air paintings, paintings from photos I took, and one from a photo I didn’t.
This is my next batch of watercolors from 2021-22. And here is the tale of each of these, left to right, top to bottom:
- The first two are from Bosque Park in Socorro, NM, from March 2022. These came out a little rough because I didn’t pack the full set of paints and couldn’t find a good place to sit. The imperfections are part of the memory, though – one look at the painting brings back the smell of the air and the loose dirt I sat on. And other memories like:
– how I got rusty at travel over the pandemic, so the whole trip was a bumbling adventure! On the flight there, I had to go through security twice because I left my credit card in the kiosk.
– how I didn’t check the scale on my map and ended up taking an unplanned 10-mile walk. I was very sore the next day.
– The two coyotes I saw darting over some charred wood. The sun was setting and I was on mile 7 or so. Things were getting eerie! I’ve always found deserts a little spooky. Something about the vast spaces and the quality of the light. - The next three are from a photo I took of Lake Elkhorn in Columbia, MD in 2019. I was there for work.
I arrived at my slightly-rickety hotel late at night, and in the morning I saw that it was right on the lake! So definitely worth the rickety-ness.
Lots of bird chatter accompanied my walks around the lake.
I’ve made numerous paintings from the same photo because I like it so much – it tastes like cool autumn mist and squelching mud.
Here, I made three back-to-back because I was working on my technique for the reflections in the lake. The third one is where I felt like I finally got it right. (But the others have parts I like, too.) - The next painting (row four, column one) is from a photograph my sister took in the Himalayas. Used as a painting reference with her permission! She’s a way better photographer than I.
- The last three are from volunteer/camping trips in the Angeles forest area with an organization called Habitat Works*, working on various habitat restoration projects. Always fun to add a quest to a camping trip! Pulling up weeds or removing old barbed wire makes me feel useful.
And with that, I am finally up to date on uploading my artwork! So I’d better get painting again, huh.
*not sponsored.