Watercolor sketch this evening…..Gesso'd 300# D'Arches rough.  Laid in the distance mountain and sky with a light acrylic wash…..Distant Pines was placed in with Derivan Liquid Graphite with watercolor (yellow ochre, raw sienna) and gouache (neutral grey #3) directly in front of distant pines.  There is some acrylic laid in at the immediate foreground which will likely be overpainted.
Sometimes I'll staple W/C paper down on a board…gesso it, maybe texture it with a little sand, and then sketch something out with a mixture of mediums… I do get some interesting effects which are not the traditional watercolor…..but then again, I usually don't paint in the so called normal fashion…  If this painting turns out, it will be matted and framed….if it doesn't turn out, I'll just gesso over it and keep plugging away at it……maybe I'll just get rid of that very front foreground and leave it alone…sometimes you can overwork a watercolor as we all know……. don't we….

This evenings watercolor sketch……….getting ready to conduct a workshop in Feb, so I thought I'd   better do some 30 minute quick sketches….I like the composition/color (cobalt blue, raw umber, yellow ochre, paynes grey, davies grey) in this one, so It will evolve into a finished painting I think…

    Logan Canyon, Utah  (From a hike around Tony Grove Lake)   Early Summer 2013….cool overcast day with just a hint of moisture in the air….  Used the salt technique in the right side to get a fuzzy wet appearance and dropped in a raw sienna/cobalt blue mixture to get some splotchy color.

   11" x 12" watercolor/Liquid Pencil on Gesso'd paper…Titled "Night Sky"..Utah Watercolor Society (cache Valley) "Best of Show"…October 2013

"The rusty leaves crunch and crackle, Blue haze hangs from the dimmed sky, The fields are matted with sun-tanned stalks - Wind rushes by.  The last red berries hang from the thorn-tree, The last red leaves fall to the ground.  Bleakness, through the trees and bushes, Comes without  sound."             (Joan Mitchell)

6 1/2" x 6 1/2" watercolor titled "End of Autumn"…"Best of Show" in the Utah Watercolor Society (Cache Valley) 2013 Small Works Show….August 2013 

                                                               Watercolor   9 1/2" x 13 1/2"

             A small 6 1/2" x 7 1/2" watercolor  with a 2" mat makes for a nice small painting…..

   Small autumn watercolors 6 1/2" x 6 1/2"..

                                                              Pastel and watercolor

                   

Small autumn watercolors ... 6 1/2" x 6 1/2"

                      

Small autumn watercolors (6 1/2" x 6 1/2") from the stacks I have been piling up in my studio this past month………

             

                                                              Watercolor…. 11"x 16"….

  October 2013….Watercolor, pastel, and Derivan liquid pencil on gesso'd 300# D'Arches W/C paper

               Acrylic, gouache, and watercolor on gesso'd canvas  …..A mountain meadow.

                                          Acrylic and watercolor  on gesso'd masonite board

One of my paintings that I completed last year….I like to paint in these heavy earthy colors, as I try to represent more of our great western wilderness scenes….

Another version of the painting above…In this one I used more panes grey

         Beside the kitchen door lie grandpa's yard boots….neatly placed for the next day's job

  A watercolor that was done up on one of the trails in Logan Canyon.  I think there were way more rocks then what I painted…but you can only paint so many rocks...

                          Moab, Utah

Small matted watercolor sketches of dried sunflowers

             
                          More small thumbnail watercolor sketches from my sketchbook

                                                Painted south of Star Valley, Wyoming

                                           Watercolor sketches from my sketchbooks

                                                     Watercolor on gesso'd paper

Continuing to experiment with the liquid pencil on gesso'd paper....I might add that I only use 300# or 400# W/C paper...

Again I used the Derivan Liquid Pencil (sepia toned for the pines and blue toned for the sky area).  Instead of watercolor, I went with gouache (yellow ochre, raw sienna, and naples yellow)...Threw in some cobalt blue watercolor to add some interest........This painting was done on gesso'd W/C paper....Just experimenting with technique.

In this painting I used the Derivan Liquid Pencil (yellow tint) for much of the pines.  I found out rather quickly that the yellow appears as a shade of green....Why they call it yellow tinted instead of green tinted, I don't know.   I also used Walnut Ink to fill in the green pines with brown dried and dying pines and also the grasses along the cliff.... The remainder was finished off in watercolor..

Last month I stopped along Rt 36 just east of Malad, Idaho and took some photos......This painting is from one of those photos....

                                                      Cache Valley...........Oct/Nov 2012

Somewhere northeast of Preston Idaho on my way back from Star Valley, Wyoming.   As I was heading west on Rt 30 up near Soda Springs I came upon this scene …..Don't think my painting did the scene justice though.  This painting was done last winter (early November time frame)

This painting was done with Derivan Liquid Pencil (sky and mountains).  The foreground was watercolor and gouache.