Hanging Out To Dry

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I painted this Taos farm a few years ago and recently found some old photo's and decided to do it again. This time I used rough watercolor paper so that I could build more texture to create a different mood. I also rearranged a few things and changed some values to emphasize different areas. The rough paper did exactly what I wanted. When I dragged my brush full of paint over lighter dry washes, it created the dry brush textures I was hoping for.

Right after it rains is such a wonderful time to paint because the atmosphere is thicker and the colors are more intense. Also the values, especially the darkest ones, are often richer. The dripping paint in the foreground was another attempt to capture this effect. The puddle with the wet mud around it also indicates that it just rained and the mystery question is, was the laundry hung out before or after the rain? Questions like this help the painting tell a story and are designed to capture the viewer's interest.

I asked a couple other artists what they think is the focal point and got different answers and that pleased me because I didn't really intend one. Rather, I wanted different "effects" where I painted light values next to dark values which always creates interest. Most of this is in the middle ground where you find the adobe building, car, laundry, trees, and darkest values. I like how different "effects" allow the viewer to spend time in different areas and then they can choose a focal point if they so desire. I always enjoy painting juxtaposition of sizes in the foreground as a way to slow down the viewers eye. You can see the large fence posts and puddle surrounded by small weeds, grass, and the wire fence. This makes the foreground interesting as it leads you into the middle ground.

The sky, rooftops and puddle are different shades of cerulean blue and the adobe house was painted with yellow ochre and cobalt violet. The gray car is a mixture of brilliant orange and cerulean blue and I also used that on the adobe to the left. Painting that structure in cool colors kept it from competing with the adobe house. Most of the foreground was painted with yellow ochre and burnt sienna with Van Dyke brown in the darker areas. The lighter fence posts are the same gray that I used for the car and the darker posts are mixtures of yellow ochre, burnt sienna and Van Dyke brown. The distant mountain is a mixture of cerulean blue and olive green and the tree leaves are olive green and french ultramarine blue. Artists are captivated by different scenes and I enjoyed painting this one again. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton