Watercolor Retreat day 3

The third day we worked on a new technique.  Using true transparent yellow, red and blue pigments to paint a marsh at sunset (Aureolin Yellow, Quinacridone Rose & Cobalt Blue).  Most paint is a combination of various pigments.  A true color contains a single pigment.  A transparent paint lets lets you see through one layer of paint to the one below.  

We first painted yellow where the marsh grass, trees and their reflections in the water are.  After the yellow paint was completely dry we painted red on the sky and water.  

After the red was completely dry we painted blue on parts of the sky, trees, marsh, and water.  To darken the trees and make the deep shadows in the marsh I added more blue.  It was amazing to see how well this technique worked.

Ironically, the spring high tide flooded the backyard and the streets around the house we stayed in.

Watercolor retreat day 2

After a wonderful breakfast we started working on the next exercise.  An egret flying over the marsh.  I started by painting the sky and water, the colors are reflections of each other. Then painted the shadows on the bird.  The shadows have shades of color from the water (blue to purple) and sun (pink to yellow).  

When the painting was dry, I masked the bird and painted the marsh, adding yellows and greens to develop depth and distinguish the dry areas of the marsh (yellow to brown) from the wet ones (shades of yellow green).   This was done wet, letting the colors mix.

I masked part of the foreground of the marsh and continued to darken areas of the marsh and painted the distant trees.  Once the painting was dry I removed the masking.  The masked areas of the march now stand out as lighter colored grass blades.  I completed painting the bird, and adding some final shadows to the marsh and tree line.

Watercolor retreat

What is better then spending time at the beach?  Spending time with other watercolorists at the beach!  Eight of us shared a house at Murrells Inlet SC for the retreat.  Leigh Ellis, a local watercolor artist and teacher, lead daily classes working with us on color mixing, painting birds and water.  

I brought my Plein air watercolor prochade box, equipped with the paints I needed for class (and a lot more):

• Cobalt Blue
• Phthalo blue
• Burnt Sienna or quinacridone burnt orange
• Aureolin Yellow
• Quinacridone Rose  or permanent rose
• Paynes Gray
• Qunacridone Gold

For our first exercise we worked on trees along a grassy bank and reflections on the water. I painted the trees and grass first. Then wet the lower half of the page and working very wet added reflections.  

It took several passes to develop the shadows on the trees, grass and the reflection in the water.

While we worked from photos, we were inspired by the marsh outside and trips to Brook Green Gardens.  I had last been there many years ago.  It was wonderful to see how it had grown and all the new sculptures they now have.