Ocean / My Watercolor

Painting with watercolors is something I have been learning for two years. It takes a tremendous amount of hands on experience to get the paint where you want it to go so that it gives the correct impression. While still very much a beginner I am having a great time. My painting class consists of ten ladies. We meet on Friday mornings. The ladies range in age from 50 to 80. Our teacher is an accomplished artist who teaches at Lewis & Clark College. Each week we learn something new, then go home and try out that technique. I especially enjoyed painting this ocean scene below because of the colors and the fun little birds. The objective was to learn how to paint water using as few strokes as possible, without overworking the space. We used a wet into wet wash, then allowed the paint to dry before adding the birds and lines.

The picture is not an original, it is my rendition of Joe Garcia's work. It comes from Joe Garcia's book, "Mastering the Watercolor Wash," page 76-77. Paint colors we used are: Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue, French Ultramarine, Permanent Ros, Raw Senna and Viridian. The paper is 140lb. cold pressed Arches.