Thursday, August 13, 2009

Water, Earth, Vapors

I shamelessly stole this blog entry title from Clive Powsey's self-published book of the same title. He is an incredibly accomplished h2o Canadian artist who has spent years in the Canadian mountains watercoloring water, earth, and vapor. I was the very first purchaser after I saw the book on his latest post. I just completed a private water color lesson at my studio with one of my ex-Sacramento City College students. She and her husband took a cruise through the inland passage on the west coast of Canada. She sent me several photos, and I chose one for the both of us to paint...dark storm clouds, mountains, trees, and the ocean water of the passage. The clouds were painted wet-on-wet with a large round h2o brush. The water was wet- on- dry painted with a large flat brush. After they both dried (sky and water), the tree and shore lines were painted inas wellas the distant mountain range. Also some embellishments were added to the water. The other water color is of a large breaking storm wave on the coast of Oregon. There are small tree- covered islands just off shore, and that is why you see those trees popping up over the breaking wave. Again the sky was painted wet-on-wet just up to the top of the breaking wave. After that all dried, the trees, rocks and wavelets were painted wet- on -dry. Notice all the warm and cool colors I painted the rocks in. Some of the splashes on the rocks were picked out with the point of an Exacto knife. OK, OK!!!!! These two efforts may not match what Clive does, but I still humbly submit these two to you, dear reader. Click on my link to Clive and buy his book!

22 comments:

  1. I think they are just great! The first is a light show, and in the second you can almost hear the crashing waves! And thanks, once again, for explaining your process.

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  2. I love them both.
    I love your choice of colours too.
    TFS

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  3. David, I'm not usually a big fan of water scenes, but you just converted me.

    These are both just beautiful!

    Kuddo's for the process details, too!

    Beckie

    p.s. That title is too great not to "spread around". No shame in that - ha ha

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  4. Hi David. I came across your blog by accident. Needless to say it was an amazing accident. I do paint a bit. It was great to read your posts. Keep posting.

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  5. I really appreciate the way you explain how you did the paintings. You are a teacher to the core.

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  6. I love water scenes... those are great paintings!

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  7. Both pieces very nice no matter who you stole from.

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  8. My gosh, they are GORGEOUS! Stealing the title is okay - you just can't steal the paintings! :) Going to check out Clive's work and book.

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  9. lovely paintings!!
    .. and thanks for Powsey link..further from his website i also rediscovered Great Tony Onley
    cheers..

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  10. Dan, It's interesting sometimes with water solor, because the wash mixture you lay down (in the case of the storm clouds) will separate a little into the washes's component colors. This helps make for a richer water color!

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  11. Diane, The colors were not really in the origional photo reference, but who wants to copy a photo ref.?

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  12. Onpainting, Stealing in the defense of my cloud post is no shame!

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  13. Rhonda, Thanks and yes, check out Clive up there in the north country,

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  14. Thanks Milind and glad you got linked up again with Onley!

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  15. Thanks Milind and glad you got linked up again with Onley!

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  16. Beautiful! I love the action of the scenes and the greens in the sky. Bold. Brave. And the lovely uneven tree line -- exactly the way it is up here in the Northwest!

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  17. I can see why you are taken by Clive P's work. These are just as stunning!

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