This is another image that I’ve been working on for my watercolour class. I want it to be all about colour, lots of colour. I really love doing the reflections of things in the water. I think that as colourful as it is it may not be in it’s final form. My question is do the reflections need more work. They are each one colour from the boat to the bottom and maybe they could be broken up more. Either broken up with some detail or maybe by adding another colour. I’ve long wanted in my painting to have bright colours and this certainly has that. A very contemporary feel.
I used a very neat watercolour technique that I learned from one of my early influences, Zoltan Szabo. The bridge at the top was all painted exactly the same colour and value as the shadow at the right side. Then when it was dry I lifted out with a wet brush all the rest of the bridge except for the shadow. It’s a lovely effect that almost seems to create a drop shadow around the shadow.
Hi, I immensely enjoy your blog and videos. Thanks so much for all the time you devote so freely.
My first impressions of this painting were simple, elegant and colorful. I like it a lot. But at your request, I switched to analytical mode. One area jumps out at me….the red and orange reflections, visually appear identical in shape and size. I’ve recently read Greg Alberts’ book about the one simple rule….Never make two intervals the same. Ahhh, but criticism is so easy. 🙂 Adios from Texas
Richard
Richard:
Thanks so much for your comment. Very insightful. It’s very interesting to me because this image and the last one of the bridge were ones I created from various sources because I felt that they contained some watercolour techniques that would be useful to my students. But when I make up paintings from my mind in a sense they are especially difficult. They are like intellectual exercises and I have to keep working at them ‘figure them out’. It’s the total opposite of painting plein air or even working from photographs. I mention that because I also love the colour of it but it just didn’t sit right as a painting. The similarity of the shapes that you mention is one thing that I noticed. Also the fact that the reflections are the same colour and value from the boat right to the edge of the paper doesn’t work. But the main thing is that I find my eye is not directed forcefully enough to the centre of interest ie the boat. I did another version of this painting for this week’s video clip and it is better but still has the same problem of not directing the eye where I want it to go. But as I look at it I see some things I can do to hopefully correct that. For me this is what makes art such a valuable journey. It’s all about discovery and moving forward.
Rex
One thing I really like about this image is how it vacillates between realism and abstraction. Those are my favorite kind of paintings. Paintings that seem to only have a life in representation or are completely abstract/without any type of familiar anchor do not hold my interest like this type of image does.
Thanks Shelley:
Your comment has me thinking a whole lot about this image. It has a lot of good things about it and a few things that I now realize need to be changed. That line between abstract and representational that you mention is one of the positives about this image. I’m particularly pleased that you see something like that in it because this is one the paintings that are starting to happen more and more often where I feel I’m beginning to express myself. It is very liberating.
Rex