Spring In Taos Watercolor Painting

My annual Watercolor Workshop in Taos New Mexico in May is full of beautiful days of painting on location and this is a demonstration that I did for the class. Spring in Taos is gorgeous and there are interesting things to paint everywhere. This was a little side street that led into the center of town and the sunlight created colorful shadows on the adobe wall. The blue color of the window is charastic of this area and is actually called Taos blue. Painting on location is challenging because the light is always changing but there is nothing so rewarding. Watercolor has such wonderful characteristics like the transparency of the paint and the way in which the paper may be used to create dramatic light effects. It is also a very portable media which is important when painting outside. These plein air paintings often have a spontaneity which comes from working quickly and painting directly. When the snow flies in Denver I will be thinking of the next workshop in Taos.