Today’s Mini Painting

I am carrying on with color wash experiments. Today I am exploring yellow ocher. I started out by wetting the paper before dropping on the paint. Yellow ocher pulled from the top to near the bottom. Then I brought violet up from the bottom to mix and mingle with the yellow. Here you see the washes still wet.

I stared at the dried paper for a long time before deciding what to do. To me, the colors reminded me of a place where my family has spent many a vacation: New Mexico. The American Southwest is characterized by dark, crumbling mountains and earthy adobe dwellings. I wanted to portray this idea in a quick sketch.

Using a watercolor crayon, I drew in the buildings as I remembered them from past visits to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Next came a little texture painted on the purple foreground. And lastly, I added a bit of blue for sky, pulling the paint down to touch the horizon.

I call this Santa Fe Dream.