Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I painted in Denver Botanic Gardens again last week and I was captivated by these pink poppies surrounded by the tall stringy blue flowers. Unfortunately the best angle for painting was in the direct sunlight and it was a hot day in the 90's. Luckily there was a gazebo a few steps away so I set up my painting gear there in the cool shade. I walked out into the sunlight, studied the flowers for a minute then went back into the gazebo

Watercolor painting by Dennis Pendleton. My artist friend, Rod Goebel, had the most spectacular garden in Taos that was set up specifically for painting. Because of this rich color environment, there were interesting compositions in every direction no matter where you were standing. Adobe walls meandered through the garden surrounded by flowers and some of my favorites were the delphiniums. Their height and rich colors always made them fun to paint. In this painting, the

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. This week I taught a private lesson at Denver Botanic Gardens and this is what I painted. The gardens are really gorgeous right now with gigantic iris and other early blooming flowers. Before I set up to paint, I like to walk around the gardens and look at all the exciting possibilities. For plein air painting, I try to carry as few supplies as possible so everything fits into my small paintbox which then attaches to a tripod that

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I went to the grocery the other day and was dazzled by all the rich colors in the produce section. They were also selling big red roses so I bought these items for a still life. The color selection was exciting with the three primary colors red, yellow, and blue plus the secondary colors of green, orange, and violet. Normally the three primary colors together would be stronger than I would choose for a painting but the secondary co