Detail of brush at left

Bridge Over Rock Creek, 12″ x 16″, Wallis white

Here’s another painting done with a watercolor underpainting.  These kind of woodland scenes in fall and spring seem perfect for this approach.  Last week I bought a lot of new water color tubes and I’ve been waiting for my paper to arrive from Dakota.  While in my public studio yesterday, I found a mounted piece of 12 x 18 Wallis museum grade white!!!  Amazing.  So I brought it home with high hopes.

I decided to do a 12 x 16 but kind of wish I’d used the entire 18″.  The really strong diagonal of light and shadow ended up smack in the middle.  But my husband said it was OK–so!!!!

Anyway,  I put a lot of work into the underpainting, adding a number of new layers over the initial ones as they faded.  I tried to remember all those demos by Richard McKinley that so inspired me.

For this painting, I used a wide variety of pastels. And of note, I used a lot of Unisons from my large Heilmann box that have become little balls! (Once you start using them, the edges wear off and they become pretty round.)  But they have such lovely odd and grayed colors. The colors in the rocks and bridge are Unisons, along with the really grayed pastels from the lemon Blue Earth set.  The background and initial layers were all Girault.  And I used a lot of hard pastels for the tiny branches and vines. The leaves are all very soft greens.  It was fun using all of my pastels in different ways.

I left most of the foreground unpainted, as you can see, with a few leaves on top and a slight indication of dirt and grass.

I loved doing this painting. And now my 8-ply Pastel Premiere white boards are here and I have another painting lined up. I want to do a series of fall and spring paintings that include smaller, more detailed pieces of greenery but not the barrenness of winter or the overkill of summer!  Looking forward to spring!!!

Jean