Spring Flowers

 

Tulips at Reimans 
8" x 10" watercolor
Arches 100% cotton cold press paper

I painted this from a reference photo I took at Reiman Gardens while visiting Ames, Iowa last week. Shari Blaukopf's new online course, "Sketching Spring Flowers," gave me inspiration and help with new techniques. I highly recommend her courses.  

I so love her loose style, and as you can see, mine is too controlled. Funny thing is, I tried a second version and...guess what? Even less spontaneous. But the second one makes me like the first more. Funny how that works.  

Tulips at Reimans2
8" x 10" watercolor
Arches 100% cotton cold press paper 

Reiterate

 

Spring at Robert Crown Memorial State Beach2
9" x 12" watercolor
Stonehenge Aqua Hotpress

Some artists don't like to repeat their compositions, but I learn a lot by doing so.  

This top composition isn't working quite as well as I would like. However, an earlier one was even less satisfying. (See below.) But I learned from the first one. Everything was too dark, including the sky. And I wasn't capturing the freshness of spring in northern California. This time of year the grasses are so green, and the bluish-purple California lilacs, AKA Ceanothus are so beautiful.

So I tried again and came up with the above. I lightened it up and used hot press, rather than cold press paper. It's much better, though not quite there yet. I'll try again sometime. 

Spring at Robert Crown Memorial Beach1
8" x 10" watercolor
Arches 100% cotton cold press