An Artist's Dream

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. This is another painting I did of Rods garden in Taos New Mexico. Like I mentioned last Sunday, his garden was set up for painting with adobe walls as backdrops for the flowers. This was like an artist's dream because everything was right there and I really didn't add or subtract anything. The depth was created by the overlapping walls and the few dark trees behind the walls. I painted the flowers just the way they were and concentrated on capturing the famous Taos sunlight. This is particularly obvious in the blue delphiniums where you can see the light coming in from the right.

I consider this a high key painting because of the bright sunlight represented with rich colors and predominately light values and only a few dark values. I did darken the four corners a bit to keep your eye from wandering out of the painting. You can also see how the wall in the upper left corner leads the viewers eye into the painting. The hollyhocks along the right border were deliberately lightened so that they did not compete with the blue delphiniums. You can also see blue delphiniums leaning in from the right border for another way to ease the viewers eye into the painting.

Size relationships are also important in this composition. The big blue flowers sit right on top of the smallest red and violet flowers creating juxtaposition which I find interesting. Also, the earthy orange color in the adobe walls is the complement of the blue flowers and sets them off nicely. For the delphiniums I used cerulean blue in different values plus a little cobalt violet. The adobe walls were painted with yellow ochre plus cobalt violet and the darkest trees in the background are a mixture of olive green and ultramarine blue. The hollyhocks on the right border are cobalt violet and rose dore and the little flowers under the delphiniums are cadmium red and cobalt violet surrounded by perylene green. Lemon yellow and transparent yellow were used for the lilies and the yellow leaves along the bottom border were mixed with lemon yellow and cerulean blue.

To maintain a garden this lush in the high desert took a lot of work and it was such a privilege being invited to paint there. Happy Painting Dennis

I have two more garden workshops this summer and the dates are July 17, 18, and 19, 2026 and August 14, 15 and 16, 2026 and you can sign up for one two or all three days. The price is $95 for one day, $170 for two days and $225 for all three days. If you are interested send me an email to pendletonstudio@gmail.com.