Another one in Boulder series. There were several others in between this one and the previous post, and I inserted them at the end of the art/watercolors tab.

15x22" Boulder - Flatirons

Yesterday I decided to start doing a series of Boulder cityscapes. Pearl Street is, of course, the first thing that comes to mind. Being a completely different subject than mountain landscapes, it gives me renewed energy and interest. Feels good to be painting something different for a change.

So, this is the first one in the series. I will keep posting the rest under the art/watercolors tab on this site.

22 x 15 inches, Pearl Street - Boulder

Notoriously difficult to do in watercolors is water. It has to be done in as few strokes as possible, wet in wet, all in one breath, so to speak. Sometimes it comes out right and sometimes you just have to forget it and do another one. It is so easy to overwork it.

This painting is of Grand Lakes in Colorado, close to the Rocky Mountain National park.

15in x 22in, Grand Lake, Colorado

This picture reminded me of the vastness of the plains near Monte Vista, Colorado. We made a trip to Durango earlier this spring. I remember the huge sky, distant farm houses and silos almost on the horizon, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the distance on a very windy afternoon.

I did not dare touch this watercolor sky once it dried out. Like Joseph Zbukvic said: “Most ruined watercolors are preceded by words: I’ll just do this…”

15in x 22in "Monte Vista Sky"

Sometimes I start a painting and half way through I notice that it could be finished differently than what the photo shows. I modify it while the inspiration lasts and then go back and do the original one again. Makes sense?

With these two paintings, I started with the photo of San Juan mountains from the Pagosa Springs tourist website showing the snow covered peaks in spring (all green foreground). Half way down the painting, by the time I was finished with the trees, the tonal range of the colors was telling me that this looked more like a winter scene. So I finished it off with snow in the foreground. After that was done, I did the original one again from scratch, this time like the picture showed. I like both the same. I also see that the colors of both images are quite different.

NOW I understand what the pros have been saying all along: Good brushes, good paper, good quality colors! What a joy to paint with these. I just got acouple of Da Vinci Spin-Synthetitics, numbers 4 and 6, and my painting just become a whole lot more enjoyable. Should have done it a long time ago.

The faster you work the more you end up surprised when a watercolor ‘settles down’. Ten minutes is all it took to do this one yesterday.

Not trying to control it is the key to paining watercolors without suffering. Half is done by you and half is what the universe wants it to be. This is very interesting.

Most artists fear watercolors because “there is no way back”. Once you make a mistake, you can just throw away the painting. It is ruined for good. While this may be true for the pure watercolors and watercolorists, these paintings can definitely be corrected and finished off using other more opaque media on top of the “ruined” watercolor. Once placed behind glass and framed, these paintings can be quite stunning.

Recently I pulled out some old watercolors and gave them this new look. Mainly because I did not want to throw them away and they really didn’t have any value for me the way they were. So, somewhat out of boredom, somewhat because I just felt like scratching the paper with crayons, I put on some good music and set out to color the paintings.

I liked what came out. So, even though they are no longer just watercolors, they are still paintings. And any painting is art as long as it is an expression of a moment in time.

Last week I started painting again. I actually put it on my calendar. This way I hope to develop a habit of painting every day. Who will win? Now I can do it. Now I have the time. Funny how inspiration comes and goes in waves. Now it’s on. So let’s take advantage of it.

(More new work from this week is posted under the art/watercolor tab. They are listed in chronological order, so the most recent ones are at the bottom.)