Sketchbook Studies

                                                                                                  (C) 2025 Dale DiMauro
 

Using a sketchbook on a daily basis is critical for artistic development and in sharpening your observation skills out in the world. This sketchbook is made with watercolor paper which is a real plus.

By trial and error I learned that this paper is great for lifting paint. Lately, I have been experimenting with the skies I paint. I wanted to emulate the skies above me which had these white streaks cutting through the blue sky.

It was so easy and intuitive to lift the blue from the paper. Also, I applied drops of water to the damp paper and it created cloud-like forms which was real encouraging.

By the way, the paper used here is: Elseware 300 lb cold press watercolor paper.

Winter Landscape

                                                                             (C) 2025 Dale DiMauro
 

After dealing with some eye issues it feels good to be back painting. The dry heat in my house has given me some dry eye issues. Dry eye therapy drops have helped but there is still irritation. Getting outside every day helps a lot, too. 

With limited snow on the ground it has not been an inspiring winter so far. I miss the snow blanketing the landscape and all the neat light patterns that come with it. The freshness of snow with it's drifts of accumulation along with reflections across frozen water and in windows has been a distinct regional characteristic.

This watercolor is painted from memory weaving many experiences cross-country skiing in the local fields and hills of Vermont. It has the dense evergreens in the distance buffering the winds and the small frozen ice pond in the foreground with it's windblown surface and scraggly growth on the shoreline.

I like the under wash of alizarin crimson showing through in certain areas. Also, the varied light I find interesting

Winter Landscape

                                                                                 (C) 2025 Dale DiMauro
 

The more experience I gain in painting with watercolor the greater understanding of what I can do with the medium. I continue to appreciate leaving the white of the paper when I can. The dry brush texture in the middle and the contrast with other colors makes the white of the paper sing.

Recently, I came upon the combination of alizarin crimson with burnt umber and ultramarine blue. This creates a soft black in the photograph, above as, in the distant hills. It came off the brush as a fresh dark which felt great to work with.

This watercolor has winsor violet in it which provides a cool feel to the overall scene.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

                                                                                 (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Over this holiday period I have been reading Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek and the Reinvention of Seeing, by author Laura J. Snyder. At one point she references Vermeer painting color into his shadows in one or more of his lovely interior scenes in contrast with some prior painters primarily using black or dark gray. 

This thought has lingered in my conscious over the last twenty four hours or so. In the past I have been encouraged by various art instructors in go back into my shadows and describe with color and texture the feel of the landscape and its contours. 

This above landscape, has a different feel, to me simply because of the use of winsor violet. Winsor violet is a color I use sparingly, except yesterday, as it is featured in this picture. It makes a nice dark when combined with burnt umber. Mixed with raw sienna, winsor violet makes a lovely tree trunk color as can be seen in the above watercolor. Also, I used it in a color mixture for painting the distant hills.

I like the cool color temperature of the colors here and in the shadows, as it is reminiscent of some of the hollows I walk through in our local woods. In particular, the stretches of winter when the ground is absent of snow cover.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

                                                                               (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

With this busy holiday season I have not been able to draw or paint as I would have liked. Plus my wife is still recovering from the surgery she had earlier in December. However, the various snow accumulations have freshened up the local landscape on these shortest days of the year.

Sometimes I simply put down a quick watercolor study as this one in my small watercolor book that I purchased at the Brattleboro Food Co-Op. I like this bound-book put out by elseware as it is a thicker paper with a nice texture. 

This combination of burnt umber and winsor violet creates a lovely dark red which sets a nice tone for the overall landscape. I have taken to adding lavender to my sky's on occasion and sometimes with payne's gray. It adds a pale color and offers a minor amount of drama to the overall scene.

Maple Picture Frame

                                                                                            (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Recently, I made this maple picture frame at a local workshop at the hatchspace in downtown Brattleboro, VT. It has a spline in the corners to strengthen the miter joinery. This frame-making experience led me to join the hatchspace with their promotional offer. They have four floors of tools, work stations and spaces.

The hatchspace has a machine that makes frame profile stock out of your wood. This is a machine I want to learn more about. In addition, I have a corner joiner at home which I want to put to good use this Winter.

So there is a lot to learn about for me regarding frame-making. In watercolor that also includes cutting glass and mats and assembling this sandwich all as one unit.

I apologize for the glare in the upper right of the image. I tried to use the cropping/red eye software to minimize or eliminate this glare but it didn't take me as far as I would like too. However, I do think the watercolor looks pretty good within this frame.

Cobalt Blue & Burnt Umber

                                                                               (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

When you study the landscape you begin to see things for what they are. Over time you develop a clearer lens and this informs my decision when choosing what to paint and how to go about painting. Or at least that's how I feel about my painting.

It takes a great restraint to paint with a limited palette. Particularly when you limit yourself to two colors. Yet there is a great harmony of color when you use a simple palette.

This watercolor was painted with only cobalt blue and burnt umber. I like the light in this picture, it reminds me of the mid-winter noon hour. I have cross-country skied many days at this time of day. All the landscape elements are clearly defined by the light and the contrasting colors.

Color Swatches

                                                                                               (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro

In the past I have posted about the importance of painting color swatches in order to have a greater understanding of your color palette. With this practice my palette seems to continually expand.

For example, there are countless grays which can be produced as in the above photograph. However, there is such a range within the grays: warm and cool versions which add so much to a painting.

When I paint color swatches of plant combinations I turn them into miniature landscapes as a way to put them to use in painting. I paint these very intuitive and in a free-flow manner so as not analyze things too much.

Over time I realized I can get by with a limited palette as I better understand what I can do with the colors at my disposal.

Anders Zorn

                                                                                                 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Anders Zorn(1860-1920) was a great artist from Sweden known for his mastery of watercolors and portraits in oil including United States presidents. He painted President William Taft and was a contemporary of John Singer Sargent.

This watercolor I did was inspired by a Anders Zorn watercolor, Sea Study, 1894. It was a small study 5" x 7-7/8". Zorn seemed to use a limited palette with a direct painting technique which caught my attention. I don't know his actual palette so I tried to replicate his colors.

For the sky I used ultramarine blue/raw sienna/paynes gray. And for the water I used ivory black and paynes' gray. I did my watercolor in one quick passage which I suspect Zorn may have done as well.

I saw Zorn's watercolor study in a book I purchased years ago titled: Anders Zorn: Sweden's Master Painter.

Retreat Field

                                                                                                (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Capturing the landscape in pencil or paint is both an obsession and a meditative state for me. The act of recording a scene makes me pay attention to what I see and then the practice of painting calms me down so that I am in the present moment like no other activity I can think of.

I just started this watercolor an hour or so ago and like how it is progressing. Like most artists the light is what caught my eye with this composition. That light makes the whole landscape seem special or at least noteworthy.

There is such a freshness to this watercolor with the pleasing pigments and the blending of colors that the warmth of light seems to be a result of the act of painting. That heavy shadow in the foreground seems to sharpen the view of the distant landscape.

At times the less you paint the more powerful the image can become. Would a figure in the foreground ruin this picture for you?

Retreat Meadows

                                                                                    (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

This fall we had mild weather and amazing color on our deciduous trees which hung on the branches longer than usual. I think the dry conditions was the reason we had an extended, yet glorious season.

I simply did not have time to paint outside as much as I would like So I resorted to photographing the fall colors and fading light which lit up the landscape to amazing effect.

This color saturation forced me to broaden my color palette in ways I usually don't. I used 'brilliant orange', a Holbein watercolor pigment, to try to match the orange-red of the distant hills and it still didn't match the intensity of color I saw out in the landscape.

This fall scene does remind me of some of Winslow Homer's watercolors of the Adirondack Mountains occupied by hunters and fisherman.

Considering black in your watercolor palette?

                                                                                         (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro

Black is a challenging color in watercolor, at least for me. Most tube blacks in my experience are dull and flat out of the tube. Ivory black I have found useful when mixed with other pigments, such as payne's gray  when I need to develop a painting quickly.

However, I have come upon a new combination of ultramarine blue with burnt sienna and alizarin crimson. This makes a lively black wth some variation of dark tones. 

You can see this combination in the above watercolor study I painted recently. This picture has one wash and it reads as one variation of black except for the white of the paper.

 

Living Memorial Park

                                                                                      (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Living Memorial Park, in Brattleboro, VT is such a versatile and well-used park. In addition to numerous softball fields it has areas to play pickle ball, a skatepark, frisbee golf, a ski lift and snowboard area. I haven't even mentioned it has a swimming pool, ice rink and performance stage, too. 
Still, I am leaving out many activities of high value to folks such as the tennis courts, etc.

This watercolor was started at the end of summer but left unfinished for one reason or another. I started this painting on a thicker stock surface - Arches 300 lb cold press since I hadn't painted on this surface in a while.

Recently, with the colder weather moving in and the shorter days advancing I went back to this painting. I was inspired by this view across the landscape, plus all the green colors and the shadowy edge in the foreground.

This picture is not finished but close to being done. A little more attention to the wispy grasses poking out of the shadows in the foreground will make a big difference.

Quick Watercolor

                                                                                              (C)2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Watercolor is such a diverse medium. An artist can lay down many washes and build up a painting like in other mediums or s/he can paint with a few washes or on the go as compared to a studio painting. This versatility is impressive in addition to not really needing a lot of materials at hand. Ultimately, the best part may be the ease of clean up. No toxic chemicals are needed.

This quick watercolor was done in my travel journal on Arches watercolor paper. It really plays up the dry brush affect one can achieve by dragging the brush quickly across the surface of the paper with a steep angle.

The distant hill reads like it has accumulations of snow on it. I like the feel the texture conveys to the viewer.

A limited palette was used in this watercolor. The pigments used include: burnt sienna, burnt umber, yellow ochre, viridian and ultramarine blue.

Fabriano Artistico Watercolor Block

                                                                                  (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

For some time, I had been interested in painting on Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper. This paper has been around for centuries not unlike Arches watercolor paper. Yet some artists only will paint on this surface. It has a reputation as a great surface for lifting color which is something I want to experiment with.

Ironically, I didn't lift any color as this was my first real experience painting on this paper. However, I feel like I can get some interesting clouds into my sky's by lifting pigment.

The subject for this picture is behind the Target Store in Keene, NH which is at the end of a series of stores in a shopping mall. If you study this landscape you will discover it is an interesting wetland along their rail trail with pleasing sunny, fall foliage.

For me, the blue of the water at the bottom of the picture is quite enticing.

Watercolor Workshop

                                                                                 (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

From time to time it is a good practice to take a watercolor workshop with an established artist. On Saturday, I was fortunate to take a workshop with Annelein Beukenkamp in Woodstock, VT through the Vermont Watercolor Society.

The theme of the workshop was painting florals(or flowers) in watercolor. This flowering quince was the subject of my painting. I don't usually paint flowers so it was a real stretch to dive into this subject matter.

However, I like the composition, coloring and soft focus of this watercolor. In addition, I have learned to appreciate leaving the white of the paper somewhere umpainted. Also, I don't usually paint from the middle of sheet and out which was a very different experience for me.

Searching for New Pigment Combinations

                                                                                          (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Discovering new pigment combinations is an unending, yet exciting experience. Basically, color is an expanding vocabulary which one can go to when they feel the need arises. The subject matter or what's on your palette may direct you in which path to go.

Therefore it is important to build an eye for color out in nature and be able to draw upon whatever pigments you can to establish your painting practice.

I find these random color doodles turned into little landscape quite important in my daily life. This green-blue above, is a new discovery created by combining raw umber and winsor blue.

The Brattleboro Common

                                                                              (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

The Brattleboro Common is a favorite spot to paint watercolors out in the open air. It has lovely open spaces, dappled light from a wide-range of mature trees and ever-changing light. Also, it has interesting people from time to time doing intriguing activities and picnic tables to paint at.

With such lovely warm, colorful fall days it has been a great season to paint the landscape. I have run about outside with my camera at times because I know the color and light is so fleeting.

I painted this landscape from both memory and the use of a reference photograph. You can't just make up this stuff. The explosion of color and well-defined shadows makes the landscape so warm and inviting. 

This was painted on rough paper which makes the surface feel very grainy and interesting at the same time.

Arches Travel Journal

                                                                                            (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Drawing or painting has become pretty much a daily activity in my life. I feel like I need to get better and more decisive at capturing the figure. In addition, it is important to get it down on paper quickly. I am always making adjustments as I move along the process.

Recently, I have adopted a technique, when needed, to paint fast, with a loaded brush and leave certain marks on the paper as it appears, without noodling about. This makes for some expressive painting and is important to let at least some of the colors blend into each other.

For warm-up exercises and portability I have been using this Arches travel journal which I have taken a liking to. I paint figures, color swatches and try new techniques all in this littler book.

Browns & More Browns

                                                                                            (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

For me brown is an elusive color. In my sketchbook I right down color combinations to experiment with and document what I come up with. I want a rich, lively brown not so much a poop color.

I find that brown makes other colors sing so in essence these are neutral colors.

Recently, there are two color combinations that I save come upon which I like: raw sienna/ultramarine blue/burnt umber and new gamboge/prussian blue/permanent red. These are both lively combinations and look well on their own against the white of the paper.