Just My Cup of Tea

I'm having super busy week, but I was determined to get in some watercolor practice in.A helpful exercise for working in any media, as many of you know, is to concentrate primarly on arrangement of your values (light dark pattern).  Here I've also played with the temperature by using two complementary pigments (wonderful quin burnt orange by Daniel Smith) and FUB (french ultra blue). I will likely turn this into quick value oil study as well.

Like many enthusiastic watercolor painters, once I get painting I too struggle with saving my whites (or lightest areas) so these type of small still life studies are perfect for practicing that discipline. Remember saving whites is essential for glowing light-filled watercolor paintings. Plan ahead and protect them vigorously!  

Also, just signed up for Tim Deibler's oil painting landscape workshop at Abend Gallery in Denver in February.  I been lucky enough to have taken a summer plein air workshop with Tim before and quite frankly am hoping he does not remember me or my frustration in a windy cow pasture chasing my very wet oil study across the muddy field.  I recall my language was less than lady like...Ahh, how I respect and admire plein painters!  


For more information about my beginning watercolor color workshops or classes in Denver (conducted in a comfy warm studio in the winter!), please write me a note. I look forward to seeing you in the studio!