Alpine Meadow

Watercolor, 10" by 8" on gessoed Foamcore. Painted from rsource 2 for workshop 46. The gesso is from QOR (Golden) and is not as absorbent as WC cold press paper, but much more so than Yupo. 2 coats of the QOR gesso for watercolors in vertical and horizontal directions gives a fine linen like surface. It is much easier to pull out color than cold press watercolor paper (tree trunk on large tree), but impossible to completely erase even very light pencil marks.

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Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on August 24, 2015 at 5:44: Lori, I have painted in watercolors off and on over the years, but have never taken a class or workshop. Yes, WC really does take a lot more planning to get it right. A good friend of mine who is a plein air WC instructor recently gave me a one day tutorial with a demo and paint along, and I have plenty of videos and books to use. After carting all my oil stuff around to plein air festivals (and I am very compact) the past several years, I have decided that if I want to paint when I travel, especially abroad, I need to improve my WC painting and drawing skills. I have done some watercolor with pen & ink sketching in the past, and that's what I want to use for traveling. I have taken watercolors and acrylics when traveling in the past and not been that pleased with my paintings, so now I am determined to improve my WC skills and start doing urban and landscape plein air sketching while travelling. I am not at all giving up on plein air oils at all, because one never masters this medium; I just like new challenges!!

Comment by Lori Ippolito on August 24, 2015 at 5:13: Your 'playing' is pretty darn good Stu! Your sky & mountains are beautiful and you did a great job on those trees! I find (in the VERY limited experience I have) that WC take even more planning because you can't scare off..and because of the layering effects..optical mixing, etc. I inevitably get off to a good start and then go just a little too far..boom..have to start again!

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on August 24, 2015 at 4:54: Thanks Laura! Hard to paint over and move things in WC; much easier in oils. My rocks are lined up in a row, and moving the second to the right rock down in the painting wouldn't be too hard, but putting any more rocks in on the right would prevent moving the eye into the painting by obliterating the path on the right. I may work a little on dropping the second to the right rock down a little, or I may just paint another, completely different watercolor on paper; probably more to learn there!!

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on August 24, 2015 at 4:49: Thanks Susan and Lori! Pretty hard to get those grasses on the edges for me Lori, since it is all negative painting in WC, but something to start working on! I was very happy just to get the soft edges on the clouds with wet in wet technique, plus working on this watercolor gesso for the first time brought some surprises! Hard edges are no problem! My watercolors are truly a WIP at this point, so rather than "working" in WC, I'm kind of "playing"; but I am serious about improving my work in WC, so you'll see more of it here.

Comment by Laura Xu on August 24, 2015 at 4:44: Beautiful work Stu! I agree with Lori on rocks, maybe move right side the rock to right corner?

Comment by Lori Ippolito on August 24, 2015 at 4:35: Nice to see you working in WC! Love everything but the foreground rocks Stu..they appear 'stuck' on after the fact..maybe grasses on the other edges?

Comment by Susan Burke on August 24, 2015 at 4:33: Ah, Stuart, another beauty! I love the sense of distance and how you lead the eye back into the painting!