Marlborough Baptist Church. Michele Clamp. Watercolor. 16”x20”
Finished? I think it’s close.
Also – I played around with the color on the ipad before starting this section. Definitely helps.
Marlborough Church Watercolor Finished
Tag: New England
Rockport Watercolor Painting
I was rootling about on google maps for some possible painting trips and came across this scene in Rockport. I’m working larger than usual which poses all sorts of problems for me but it isn’t currently a complete disaster. I’ll leave it on the easel overnight and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow. I was going for subtle color but may have undercooked it a little.
Zakim Bridge Watercolor Study
I’ve been wrestling with this view of the Zakim bridge from Boston Naval Yard for a while. It has a lot of contrast and my first try I overdid the value range completely. So after finishing the heron this morning I thought I’d just do a quick freehand value sketch with no prior drawing and see how it came out. I think I might finally be onto something. Going in with the mid values first, then the darks and then the lighter values helped enormously to tie this together. Let’s see how it turns out with a full size attempt.
Boats at the Naval Yard, Boston Harbor
I’ve been saving this scene for a bit since our painting trip to the Naval Yard in Boston. I had a disastrous outing with a previous scene but couldn’t resist the boats for any longer. I’m pretty happy – the effect of strong sunlight is there and the composition is pleasing. A good days work.
Grist Mill, Sudbury, MA
Don’t let anyone ever tell you painting is relaxing. I’ve been suffering a bit of mojo deflation recently and nothing has been coming out well. Until today that is!
This is a scene of the Grist Mill in Sudbury which was built as an ‘improved’ mill by Henry Ford (yes that one) in 1924. After spending some time on site earlier this year I’ve held off painting a full painting as I wasn’t sure how to attack such a traditional scene. But I think it came out pretty well. Very happy and the mojo is restored.
Some intermediates :
Motif Number 1, Rockport Watercolor Painting
This scene is almost too familiar to paint and I’ve avoided it until now. Apart from the familiarity of the subject I’ve also avoided it because it didn’t really grab me compositionally. It is just a big red shed after all.
Yesterday, however I thought ‘why not?’ and set to work from a shot I took about 5 years ago. After much cropping I settled on what I thought was a simple arrangement. In practice, however, this turned out to be pretty complicated and ended up being a two day affair.
I started with hot press paper which had worked out so well with the Orchard Beach painting. The drawing went well – kept things pretty loose and undefined :
Next comes the hard bit – initial washes. I’m keeping away from the darks right now and wanted to keep the values close together. I especially didn’t want to overdo the shadow on the red building. Just dark enough to show it’s in sunlight but not so dark it ruins the effect. I was also trying hard to get some texture and variation into the broad areas of color. Spraying with water and some judicious light glazing kept these areas interesting.
Putting the windows in is always tricky. It never ceases to amaze me how little detail you need for an area to say ‘I’m a window’. In fact if you get too accurate it looks odd and pasted on. Pretty happy all round at this point.
Next was going in with the darker areas around the waterline. This is always tricky and it could go horribly wrong at this point.
Phew. Got away with it. It’s starting to come together now. There was a sticky moment when the boat wasn’t tied into the water and had that painted on look. Some carefully placed darks and blending of color between boat and water saved the day.
At this point as long as I don’t do anything really stupid I should be ok.
Almost home here. The boat is in with just enough detail and contrast to be interesting but not overdefined. The stone wall is suggested with a few lines. Just some touching up and we’re done.
The final thing. I think I’m ok with it. As always it’ll take a couple of days to reveal the stuff I really like and also the stuff I hate. Fingers crossed.
The original photo (heavily cropped).
