Mountain Gardens

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I just got home from Steamboat Springs Colorado where I taught a plein air watercolor workshop so my Sunday email is going out on Tuesday night. We were painting in the Steamboat Botanic Gardens and this was my demo. I talked about how the artists should give themselves permission to include anything in their painting that they thought would make a more interesting composition. With that in mind, I included some roses that were blooming off to my left. I thought they added a nice splash of color among all the green plants in front of the aspen trees. They also added nice round shapes against all the tall verticals.

Starting with the aspen trees, I used cobalt violet and yellow ochre while leaving unpainted white paper on the left side to indicate sunlight. The aspen trees a little further back were painted with the same mixture in a darker value. This outlined the front aspens and made them more prominent. Their dark markings are a mixture of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue. While painting, I moved around from one area to another so that I didn't have to wait for colors to dry and so that I wouldn't get hung up in one spot.

The tall blue flowers came next and I used cerulean blue and French ultramarine blue. My watercolor paper was almost upright and you can see how gravity caused the colors to drip down and run into each other. I was careful to leave bits of white paper while this was happening. Cobalt violet was also added while the paint was dripping. There were some little red flowers growing close to the ground and I painted them pink mixed with cobalt violet and rose dore then added cadmium red and alizarin crimson. There were lots of green plants so I concentrated on different shapes and sizes while mixing olive, perylene, cerulean blue, and lemon yellow.

For the pine trees I mixed burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue with an emphasis on the burnt sienna. The one on the left was darker than I wanted so I painted over it with clear water then blotted it with a tissue. This not only lighted the value but also resulted in some interesting texture. That same pine tree was brought forward by allowing it's branches to overlap the aspens. The roses were painted with cerulean blue, cobalt violet, and rose dore and the misty sky is a combination of cerulean blue and brilliant orange. I would like to thank the artists who attended the workshop and I will show more of my paintings from the trip in future emails. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton