Capturing A Mood

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I just got back to Denver from my Watercolor Workshop in Taos New Mexico and this is a demonstration I painted on the third day. The weather was absolutely perfect and we were painting in the church yard of a handsome little mission in a small town just outside of Taos. I was fascinated by these aspen trees that had more markings on them than I had ever seen. Because they are all connected by a root system underground they were all marked like this and I couldn't resist.

Starting with the two biggest trees, I painted their shadow sides with a mixture of cerulean blue, cobalt violet, and yellow ochre. I never stir up mixtures in the hope that you will be able to see bits of each of the colors. To much stirring results in muddy and flat pigment. I also added small amounts of those three colors after the first wash was dry. The black markings are a combination of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue. The other four aspen trees were painted with yellow ochre and cobalt violet because I wanted them to be a little warmer.

I was over come with a certain mood in the church yard, partly because of the grave stones and crosses, and even though I couldn't explain it I wanted to capture that in paint. Rich colors and darker values in the background would have destroyed that mood. I used a light to medium wash of perylene green for the darker area at the base of the trees and also for the cast shadows of the two bigger trees. Light soft washes of cerulean blue and olive green completed the background. The foreground is olive green mixed with cerulean blue plus a few marks of olive. Finally, a few branches with green leaves were added. You can see unpainted white paper in the trees and background which I think added to the mood I was after. The artists in the group were watching behind me and they told me to stop because the painting was finished. I stepped back to take a look and decided they were right. I was going to add cast shadows for the smaller trees but I am glad I didn't. Deciding what to leave out is just as important as what you include. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton