Daily Painting

I joined POPs at Stanford Cactus Garden last Tuesday. So many textures and colors! Here is a succulent with some thought about the color scheme before painting. Always works best.

I love Joyce Washor's watercolors and always, her choice of color. I love her transparent work - yet the layers have pigment and aren't washed out. I tried my hand in her style. This was my first time arranging objects for a still life. I used a yellow/purple palette, but cheated and added orange and green accents. So, perhaps an all complementary palette. I'm pleased with this [a rare thing].

This was the water tower at Holbrook-Palmer Park in Atherton with the Thursday group last week. I spent time composing, making sure there was a range of values in the scene, and focusing on what drew me to this in the first place. All that was good. Framing - check.  Cropping - check.  Values - check. Then I started drawing. And drew and drew and drew. Agreed that the perspective is tricky, and the angles are odd but I'm happy with the drawing. But I spent so long drawing that I barely got any paint down before it was time for lunch and show-and-tell. So, at the risk of maybe not being as accurate, it is important to sketch loosely and get the paint flowing. I forgot this was hot press, and continued to layer in the bottom right, and made it somewhat blotchy. Oh well. A philosophy arose from this painting’s journey: find the detail that drew you in, keep the focus, frame and crop. Never forget the focus. Don’t be tempted to add this thing, and then that too. The focus gets l