the beauty of a brush

I've been immersed in watercolour these past few days... removing pans from different palettes in order to assemble one with a set each of warm and cool primaries along with a few neutrals

figuring out how to mix colours in quantity quickly

(spraying the pans with water first makes a huge difference)

getting to know my new brushes

(I have three new ones: a large dagger, a 1 1/2" wide angled and a 3/4" flat)

lines, washes, twirls, flat lays, learning how to let the brush do the work

below is some the magic the dagger brush can do though it wasn't done with intention

 as I tried using the brush in a few different ways, dancing it across the paper this way and that I realized a small flock of birds was emerging

(the wide brush strokes that now seem to hint of water were done first, testing the 3/4" flat with somewhat thick paint on dry paper)

I love when these things happen, not trying for anything, just playing, and then the noticing starts

next up to learn to paint skies so my eyes have been turned upward for these past few days

we had a beautiful sunset last Monday... first the sky gleamed with golden light, the rays shooting out over the hill tops... a stop you in your tracks vision

20 minutes later, a soft peachy pink

I love these last two, the architecture of the wharf at dusk, the hills a series of values

if you click on the images, a larger version should come up and they look even better

today I spent some time looking at sky holes and all the different edges where cloud and sky meet - noticing the shapes of the clouds and just how much grey there really is

drawing and painting really do make you look more closely, noticing the finer details, the incongruity of some of the colours you see but would never have thought were there, the beauty of a hard edge

today on my walk I was wishing I had a bit of paper and paint with me, so I think I might finally be ready to get that sketchbook outside!