Painting by Feeling

A call-out to my first and only official watercolor teacher to date, Marilyn Postema! I had a few different skies done up in my watercolor journal, and while I was listening to the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy I decided I ought to put some more paint on them. The result was not anything to do with where I am or what I've been seeing lately. Instead, my studious brush pressed out images of my home in Big Bend - the mountains, the plants, the river.

 In this one, I sort of modeled the mountains outside my back window (featured in the header on my blog), threw in a sotol plant (you can see my attempts at figuring out how to sawtooth the leaves above... I gave up), and then tried to do something akin to the river. In trying to capture the pale chocolate milk of the Rio Grande, I pretty much failed, but the dark flow that I ended up with was kind of interesting in its own right.

This one I am still working on, but I was very pleased with how the background turned out: the Sierra del Carmen, rosy as ever, and absolutely lovely. I also put some light clouds in there. The sky... I'm thinking I might have to break down and buy another blue, because I just can't get that brilliant sky-blue with my ultramarine... I talked to a painter in town and he recommended cobalt... we'll see. He also had a marvelous technique in that his nature scenes had little people in them. This really drew you into the landscape and connected you with what you were seeing - I think I'm going to have to try this in the future. As for what's going to go in the mid- and foreground of this painting? I'm not exactly sure yet. I was thinking some desert hills, terraced how they are in Big Bend, but aside from that I'm not quite sure. Perhaps I'll have to put a little hiker in there somewhere!

I went to church at Bridgeport Christian Fellowship today - it was a nice little church. It's refreshing to make it to town and attend a service every now and then; I think I'll try and get out to one in Mammoth Lakes if I go down there to test-ride bikes in a couple weeks. Of course, next weekend I'll be on vacation! Work keeps rolling right along. My latest yarn shipment is in, but I couldn't pick it up because the window's not open on Sundays, so I'll have to go into town again tomorrow or Tuesday. Maybe I'll get a bike ride in while I'm at it. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm sure after my vacation I'll have some pictures to post and some adventurous stories to tell.

Until next time!