First watercolor - 8/1/10

Location: Carroll Road

I came to this class with little to no painting experience, and absolutely no "plein air" experience. I chose to work with watercolors, though I brought drawing supplies along for backup. The first day we went to Carroll Road on the Old Mission Peninsula. It was hot and sunny. I looked around at the fields trying to find something graphic and linear to hold onto in the sea of fluffy greens. I decided to use the telephone poles as my anchors for the first piece. I brought watercolor markers and thought those might help me, but they seemed to push me in the wrong direction. Watercolors aren't the best medium for "drawing" so, I still had to figure out how they behaved and what I could do with them.

Bayside Park 8/1/10

I went to the Bayside Park in Acme to do my homework on a quiet beach. I felt that this piece was more successful. I liked the composition and the simplicity much more than my first piece.

Beach off Swiney Rd 8/2/10

The second day was rainy. We were dismissed to find a dry spot. I drop to a beach of Swiney Road, 3/4th of the way up the peninsula. It was still drizzling, but I was able to set myself up in the passenger seat of my car with the door open so I had a clear view of the bay. I worked on two images at once so I could test or experiment on one. The first was more "picky" and the second a little more loose. I think with the exception of the birds, the second is the better painting.

Another Bayside Park beach scene was my homework.

Bayside Park 8/2/10

Old Mission Lighthouse 8/3/10

The third day we went to the Old Mission Lighthouse. When I walked out to the water it was like walking into a painting. Everything was so still. I unwisely placed myself in a sunny spot on the dunes near rustling chipmunks, and buzzing bees. I eventually moved into the shade and working on details from there.  I was tired of painting with such light paintings, so I decided to exagerate the colors a bit and paint with a more saturated palette. The horizon wasn't quite straight, but I felt that I did a better job grounding the islands weeds and rocks.

Homework was a torn paper version of a previous composition. I chose to layer tissue paper for mine.

Torn Tissue 8/3/10

Chateau Chantal 8/4/10

The fourth day was spent painting at Chateau Chantal. It was breezy but hot. I sat next to Annette and she gave me some tips that helped me loosen up and play with the puddles of paint a bit more. I enjoyed that, though I don't consider this a finished pieces. I would still like to work on the vines a bit, but I will preserve the way they fade out into eachother when the move to the left of the page.

Complementary Colors 8/4/10

For homework on day 4, I did a complementary colored version of my previous torn tissue comp. I wanted continue to play with the color in a simple composition.

Elk River 8/5/10

The fifth day we chose to sit beside Elk river and paint the stumps that  emerge from the water there. I did a triptych, working to create 3 compositions that could stand alone or together. I do think that my final day piece shows improvement when I look back to where I started, though there is still a long way to go before I would feel confident with the medium.

Torn Tissue 8/5/10

For my last homework I created another tissue paper collage based on a wheat field photo I took in Yuba.  I also did one last watercolor that was a simplification  and summary of the common elements I found in my Traverse City landscape compostions.

Traverse City 8/5/10