The Dream that was Florida

Conversations with Monet and Poplars on the Banks of the Epte (1891) in Watercolor

 Poplars on the Banks of the Epte (1891)
In my watercolor classes I find when working from photos, students are too caught up in the details of the photo. So by working from
 Poplars on the Banks of the Epte, we can have a "conversation" with Monet to see how he handles trees, light, water and atmosphere. 

Conversations With Monet But In Waterolor!

Monet's iconic painting "Nymphaes"  or Water Lilies, was a great source of inspirational material for my recent watercolor class.  I figured he is the quintessential impressionist, and in working in watercolor it would help the class loosen up their strokes.  One of the problems I find students have with photos , is trying too slavishly to copy the details of the subject, rather than concentrating on the light , mood , and atmosphere of the place.  A sense of poetry and space get lost in that, thus the emotional involvement in the painting.
Here are the steps I used to arrive at my first example.
 1. First I used a fan brush and laid the masking fluid in with no pencil drawing necessary,.  Just use the corner of the fan brush , stay loose!

• 2. After the Windsor Newton masking fluid is placed and dried, I wash over the paper          with cadmium yellow in the center and progress to the outsides adding purples , two       purples, one leaning blue, one leaning red. 

•  3. Then I start increasing wet into wet washes of other colors such as chrome green,     cerulean or horizon blues blue greens, burnt sienna's, letting them intermix.  

• 4. I started adding more and more color, then finally salt for a bit of texture, but not everywhere.

5. Then I wait till it dries, pat up excess paint from the surface of the masking fluid, and rub off the mask with a rubber cement eraser.