Plein Air Watercolor

                                                                                       (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

This morning I had a great start while plein air painting. It was a beautiful morning to paint, too. I had the sky washed in and the vegetated landscape all sketched out. 

When suddenly two dogs appeared out of nowhere and knocked me off my park bench. I was sitting on one end of the bench when the larger dog jumped up to where I was sitting and the bench slid like a seesaw to the ground.

After the dogs left I wiped the dirt off my supplies and tried to carry on but it was not the same. The trauma of that moment lingered on. Before long I gathered my supplies and headed home. 

Regardless, of the experience, I was focused and had a great approach to painting this particular subject matter. It makes me want to get back to painting even if this picture didn't turn out so well.

Farmer's Market

                                                                             (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Yesterday my wife and I went to the local farmer's market for the first time this season. It was a beautiful day and well attended. When I was there I realized this is a great site for plein air painting. 

Now to be clear, I did some plein air painting at that site in the past. However, there are many subjects to paint from the river setting, to musicians, people galore and lovely natural settings.

So today I went back and painted this plein air. This is the first plain air I have paint outside in quite some time. It may come across as a bit crude but it developed rapidly and I felt good about the overall experience.

Maine Landscape

                                                                                          (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Maine for me is a state of mind as well as one of the fifty states. I am beginning to yearn for that Maine coast particularly with today's temperatures topping out around ninety degrees. Just the sight and smell of the ocean brings relief to my senses. Last year my summer trip to Maine was less enjoyable as I had an eye infection the entire time my wife and I were away.

I have gotten more comfortable painting a wider range of skies while holding the block and letting the paint run across the sheet with less fussiness. Using gravity to your benefit is something I have embraced.

Painting or drawing on the interior cover of my watercolor blocks is something I do on a regular basis. It is a nice space to work out compositional details or record notes on painting.

Landscape Painting in Process

                                                                                           (C)2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Every painting has it's own unique process from my experience. There are certain parameters put on some pictures, particularly, if you are painting outside, have limited time or size constraints. 

This picture I started a little while back and did some more work on it recently. Perhaps, it might seem complex but I differ on that perspective. Often, I make refinements along the way, even though the composition is essentially unchanged.

What appealed to me most about this watercolor other than the colors is the view down across the landscape with an inviting contour on the far side of the pond. This very contour draws you more into the landscape.

However, I may tweak this far pond edge of the pond as it seems too exaggerated but other than that I am okay with things at this point.

West River Trail

                                                                                (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

After numerous interruptions it was great to get back to painting - in earnest. This spring has come quick even though we had a relatively late winter - at least in southern Vermont.

This image has stuck with me since late last fall. I feel a lot of temperature and even humidity in this picture. There is something about the quality and scale of local fields which draw my attention.

This was painted on Monday from a photograph I took early last fall. This watercolor developed rapidly and was complete in a little over an hour.

The Grays Have It.......

                                                                                         (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

The more I paint in watercolor the more I appreciate the color gray. Gray steps backstage for the other flamboyant colors that want to shine up front. For example, a vibrant red will be striking when positioned in a sea of cool grays. It's like a red 'stop sign' on a pavement of gray.

However, there is a huge spectrum of grays at the watercolorists hand. There are warm to cool temperature grays and everything in between those two. You can stick with transparent pigments or introduce some opaque pigments, too.

On the right in this photograph is a gray created by combining pthalo blue with burn sienna. This combination makes the warm, peachy yellow 'glow' above it(winsor lemon/burnt sienna).

Ashuelot River Walk

                                                                                           (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

After working in Keene, NH, earlier this week, I took a jog on the Ashuelot River Walk. Tuesday was a glorious day and the trail was well used with walkers, cyclists and joggers, Birds and peepers were chattering about, too.

I have plein air painted in Keene before, but am always looking for new sites to capture in paint. In addition, I like to paddle along the Ashuelot River.

As the photograph shows, the landscape is really greening up. However, many of the trees are yet to leaf out.

Ivory Black

                                                                                          (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

Recently, I have rediscovered ivory black as a color to include in my studio palette. Maybe not for use all the time but when necessary. 

I have several Charles Reid books in my library which I consider classics. They were bought used. However, at times he seems to have advocated using black to help achieve a dark with other pigments but not on it's own.

Anyway, I looked through my tubes of paint and discovered, in fact, I had a tube of ivory black. This tube remains largely unused, so I figured it was worth experimenting with.

I have experimented with ivory black and winsor violet for a rich, foreboding dark. Also, I have combined burnt sienna with ivory black and come up with a rich dark brown. The above green here is the result of combining permanent sap green with ivory black. To me this image has the quality of a late afternoon light.

Else Ware Watercolor Paper

                                                                                           (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

There is so much joy in watercolor painting. Part of it is what one learns along the way. There are so many different surfaces one can paint on from paper to illustration board to aquabord. In addition, there is a vast number of pigments to choose from, not to mention the range of brushes at one's disposal.

I love this new watercolor paper I have been using, so much, I am posting another image from that book.  The paper is called else ware and I just received a shipment of this paper in a larger book which is 7" x 10". 

It is difficult to find 300 lb Cold Press watercolor paper that is in a bound format. I simply love the texture of this paper and how it retains the fresh pigmentation.