Many successful watercolors might have the illusion of complicated design but are pretty simple and straightforward as you attempt to reconstruct – or better – deconstruct – the painting.
Read MoreAbstraction in Plein Air
My Plein Air Watercolor class wraps up this week. We focused on the region around Fernandina Beach for six weeks, painting in spots like Fort Clinch, Downtown Fernandina, Crane Island, The Fairbanks House, The Pippi Longstocking House, and Kingsley Plantation.
STUDENT WORK: “Marshland Fragmentation, Kingsley Plantation, Fort George Island,” by Cindy Guy, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. Cold Press paper, 14” x 11”.
I always teach students to observe closely, especially when it comes to painting windows. Are they merely dark blue rectangular shapes or is there something else going on?
Cindy Guy, a regular student and Watercolor for Life alumna attended the session. Watercolor for Life is a playful nod to the fact that many of the students in my regular Saturday studio classes are there for their tenth, twelfth, or even sixteenth session. Ryan Buckley, a fellow student in the class, who also happens to be my framer, came up with the name for the group.
In “Marshland Fragmentation, Kingsley Plantation, Fort George Island,” Cindy heeds this advice when she chooses her subject: a window of the Planter’s House at Kingsley Plantation. The view is through one window into the house's interior and two adjacent windows on the other side that look out at the front lawn, river, and marsh.
Her painting starts out with representational intent and quickly moves to abstraction. Through careful observation, Cindy recognizes the distortions caused by the imperfect glazing, the reflections of trees around the structure, and the multiple imagery created by looking through one window to another. She is sensitive to all of the distortion and carefully paints what she sees - not what she thinks she sees.
The composition