Watercolor Splashes and Splatters

Greetings!

I've been splashing in the waves for the past few months. I have so much to learn about how the waves are formed. Once I have some understanding of what I'm seeing I then have the challenge of putting what I see and what I want to see on my watercolor paper. Wow, what a fun and exciting task!

The Internet has many good images of waves in photos from around the world but I don't like to work from other photographers work. Aside from copyright infringement issues, I find (for me personally) nothing beats going straight to the source...cameras and sketchbook in hand ... and just study the waves for myself. What a wonderful excuse to visit the coast!

During my visits to the Oregon coast I was fortunate to observe several different lighting conditions and directions to give me a wider depth of study. And I came home with several hundred digital photos to sort through. A task I will thoroughly enjoy.

I have found that the best motivation for learning how to paint an unfamiliar subject in watercolor is the teach it. At least that's what works for me, after all how can I teach someone else how to do it if I can't do it myself. I'm feeling pretty confident that my wave studies have been successful and while I still have much to learn about waves and their nature I believe I have a fairly good grasp on where to start my watercolor paintings. The two watercolor study paintings displayed above were painted in my studio from a combination of my photo references. They are 11 x 7.5 inches painted on Arches 140# CP paper using Daniel Smith Watercolors.

I used these two watercolor paintings (plus several additional watercolor works-in-progress) to teach a watercolor class in Bellevue in April. It was such a fun class. There will be more....

I'll share some more coastal paintings in the near feature. (I'm on a roll! And I have another watercolor workshop coming up on July 15th in Bellevue and July 27 & 28 in Seattle. And you're invited to come see my FREE DEMO at the Seattle Daniel Smith Store on July 12th 11:00am & 1:45pm)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you will visit again soon!
Keep those brushes wet!

SUSIE