Mt. Tam By Day and Night

I managed to get two paintings done this week. I decided to do the same subject with two different moods. Mt. Tam is situated in Marin County not far from where I live.  The purpose of this first exercise was to experiment with texture, What better subject to choose - hence the closeup view.  With so much texture going on in the mountain area, I decided to keep the sky very bland so as not to fight with, or detract from the textured area. Painted on hot  pressed paper, the watercolors I used were, burnt umber mixed with a little Paynes grey, raw sienna and a very small amount of the sky color which was indigo, to carry the color into the rest of the painting for harmony.  I dribbled granulation medium on the wet paint on the lower part of the mountain and let it run down the page. It is often hit or miss using this technique. The key is using colors that granulate well and not using too much granulation medium.  In the watercolor below I tried to capture the mountain by moonlight using various blues, with a hint of warm color picked up from my palette.

Marsh Scene

I did this painting in a hurry and under pressure to get a watercolor out for my Thursday class. It was an attempt to paint loosely. When it was done I didn't particularly like it so wondered whether to even take it to class. It's interesting that it was well received and got a good critique from Jerry Stitt, my instructor. Maybe sometimes we are too close to our work to have the ability to evaluate a piece.