Saturday, November 20, 2010

Back to the River

Got the watercolours out this morning to go and join my sketching buddy, John, at Emmarentia Dam - we continue to hope other enthusiastic sketchers will expand our little band, but so far it's a slow process finding them. We sat in a dry part of the river bed and painted this woodlandsy scene. The sun kept disappearing behind clouds, changing the light and reflections completely. I so want to learn to paint water and reflections, and they are so difficult! The yellow parts in the water are greener in the actual sketch - reflecting the trees behind, it looks a bit sickly in this scan. Actually it didn't smell too great either, recent rains must have washed down some muck from upstream, but I'm sure you'd rather not know that!

12 comments:

wawos said...

Great work.

Brava!!

Ciao from Sardinia

Charlene Brown said...

This water is hypnotically real, Cathy... And you may not have noticed, but this painting is very nearly perfect as a thumbnail on all our blog lists!

martinealison said...

Je comprends votre déception à voir se cacher le soleil et du même coup voir disparaître les reflets dans l'eau... Toutefois votre peinture est belle et généreuse en couleurs.
Bises... Bon week-end.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Glad you had a good day by the river painting with John - it is reflected in the lovely contrasting light you created in this piece despite the disappearing sun. Love the made up word 'woodlandsy'!

Carol King said...

Cathy, I think you got the water reflections down! A really beautiful woodland scene. I expect to see a deer pop it's head out from behind a tree.

Sandra Busby said...

What a lovely painting! You make it look so easy :0)

RH Carpenter said...

I like this a lot, Cathy! I think you are doing water and reflections :) No worries about describing the smell - just part of what artists do for their art!! ha ha At least you had a dry spot to sit and work.

Unknown said...

I like this watercolour; very atmospheric, although thankfully without smell.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful work. Your brush strokes are so free and lovely.

Sue Van Etten said...

Wonderful.

darren pryce said...

Hi Cathy, thanks for the Blog, can you tell me if the pva you use on the scraperboard is pva glue or some kind of paint mix? I can only find white pva glue which is very transparent, thanks!

Cathy Gatland said...

Hi Darren - what we call PVA here is acrylic house paint - a good brand is Plascon Wall 'n All, not sure if that's available everywhere, but any thick white water-based (ie. can clean the brush in water, not turps) wall paint should work.