Advancing with Watercolor "Italia" The Garden

Fluency and the visual language

This week we move from the vast space of the coast to a more intimate space of the Italian garden. In Sicily we found beauty and inspiration in the formal and informal gardens. As is typical the larger homes and public spaces have set aside spaces for flowers and other plants. I found the arrangements so natural, almost accidental. Earthenware jars, terracotta planters and plants from the tropical to the desert. In fact Sicily is abundant with Prickly Pear Cactus Its no surprise then that these garden settings would appear in my paintings.

I am looking at out courtyard or common area at the small villa where we stayed in Salinara - the west coast of Sicily. It is in some ways as complex as the scene of the Cliffs at Sciacca but more intimate.

I will extend the use of gradations of color in the wet into wet washes to start the painting. In choosing where to start I look for the lightest colors, the light greens ochres and reds and places these colors very loosely over most of the paper - not working about edges or shapes  - Mixing the colors on the page - Then after this colorful soup has a chance to dry we start to bring out the light and form with shadows using a technique referred to as negative painting. I will use the same colors - mixing on the paper with les water and more attention to the positive and negative shapes

Gradation involves manipulating the color while it is wet - it looks quite easy but in fact is challenging. It is an extension of working wet into wet which requires us to sacrifice some control and allow watercolor to do its thing.

What will you need this week

In class we will create a couple of paintings together so you will need a couple of pieces of paper.I am using a scrap piece 10 x 14 for a drill and a larger 12 x 18 piece for the painting.I do recommend goof paper all of the painting we do together

Brushes

A large flat 2” and a 1 inch flat 1”, a couple of sabelette rounds large and small..A Mop brush #8 and #12

Masking Tape, spay bottle, paper towel, hair dryer, and mounting board

Color

Yellow ochre, cad yellow light,  b Sienna, cad orange red. ultramarine blue, Prussian green,Alizarin Crimson and  white

What will we do this week

A Drill

We will start with an exercise in graded washes and negative painting. The subject is a few pomegranates hanging in the tree . We start with a loos application of reds, yellows, and greens - Mixing on the paper the colors mix and collide and give us a rather soupy mix. Then we start to create leaves, branches and fruit with dry technique following the suggestion of the first wash