Mountain Lake – Karen Winters Daily Painting

SOLD – “Spring Thaw at a Mountain Lake” 11 x 14 watercolor

Although it may seem that I’ve been missing in action, I’ve been busily working on many deadlines for different shows, and now some of that is behind me. Other deadlines loom, but they’re at a manageable distance. I took a little time tonight to work on this simple watercolor of a mountain scene, using a limited color palette of ultramarine blue, thalo blue, burnt sienna and sap green. I picked up an interesting tip from artist Al Setton, who I watched demonstrate a few nights ago. When he paints in watercolor or acrylic he keeps three rinse water containers. One for rinsing warm colors, one for cool and one clear water. When you’re painting in a hurry and don’t want to take the time to rinse twice (once in dirty water, once in clear) – if you consistently use the right rinse water before continuing with the same color, you won’t have much of a problem. It’s when you rinse in greenish water and then try to paint red that you can get in big trouble.

Comments

  1. wendy
    February 22, 2008

    What a clean lovely scene and it pays to have three jars of water. What a good tip. ?Thanks for the way you are generous in sharing with us tips about painting, things we wouldn’t have even thought about.
    w.

  2. Deborah
    February 22, 2008

    That’s very pretty. Is that place some where in SoCal?

    deb

  3. Sherry
    February 22, 2008

    I am attracted to the way you handled the reflection in the water. The tip about three rinse waters sounds workable. I’ll give it a try.

  4. Rob Burkhard
    February 22, 2008

    Karen,
    I love this painting. It is powerful and simple. Very nice work. Thanks for the water tip. I would have never thought of it and have had issues with dirty water ruining a painting while being in a hurry. It makes perfect sense.
    Rob

  5. melissa
    February 24, 2008

    I’m seeing a little Cezanne in this one. Great painting.

Leave a Comment

You can use these HTML tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>