Watercolor on Arches cold press paper 6" x 9"
Late Summer 1997. Another example of early plein aire watercolor painting. I do not like this one but in going back to look at all the early stuff I noticed that this may have been the first time I had ever used a knife to scrape out highlights. I believe that this was done during the time I had been reading alot about Winslow Homer and JMW Turner. I was amazed at all the different techniques they would use to get a desired effect. The knowledge gained made it into this one in the spray of water from the fish and in some of the wave crests. This painting is interesting to me now in that I was very much struggling with how to use watercolor for quick outdoor studies. I had previously been very accustomed to doing everything at home where I could take as much time as needed to prepare and plan every brush stroke. This was sort of a "freeing" moment for me when I made the step to not worry about these highlights and just paint. I had alway had the impression that I must preserve every highlight in advance - so how would I ever be able to doing anything without alot of pre-planning?
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