West Brook Pond

West Brook Pond, Gros Morne Park, NL

West Brook Pond is a former fjord, which has been separated from the sea by a strip of land. Now it is a fresh water lake. The lake is practically at sea level and the steep mountains surrounding it reach up to 700 m. The only way to see it is a boat tour and on a clear sunny day the view is awesome. They say, if you have time to do only one thing in Gros Morne, take this boat tour.

Sunset at Rocky Harbor

Sunset at Rocky Harbor

What intrigued me in this view was the bright, silvery reflection in the water. The photograph I had taken (below) did not capture the colors well, so I painted them partially by memory. I stayed with a limited palette, this time: ultramarine, yellow ochre and alizarin crimson.
Today I also sketched a couple of other landscapes from Newfoundland, so hopefully I have time to paint them in the next few days.

A sketch from Newfoundland

Green Gardens trail in Gros Morne

I just returned from an exciting trip to Newfoundland. This was my first visit there and I found quite a few surprises. I spent a week at Gros Morne national park hiking and enjoying the wilderness. There was too much to see and do, so I didn't find much time for painting but I've collected ample material for future watercolors. The above was the only sketch I managed to do en plain air. While that day the sea was really as calm and inviting as it looks, the water was too cold to actually swim in it. The nature is beautiful and the park offers quite a variety of landscapes.

Memories from past vacations

Near Monterey, California

Tulum, Mexico

I felt like painting seascapes today, so I picked two old vacation photos. I used only three colors for both - alizarin crimson, prussian blue and indian yellow. They seem like a great trio for landscapes.

Willow

I love weeping willows and some day I will manage to paint them in a way that they don't look like haystacks...

10-minute watercolors

A view in the Rodopi mountains in Bulgaria

Rainy sunset at the lake

I have been reading, and re-reading, the little booklet "10-Minute Watercolors" by Hazel Soan. A real gem! The underlining idea is to learn to simplify your subjects so that you can capture their essence in a very few brushstrokes. Great skill especially for painting en plain air. Not being able to simplify is one of my big problems. Limiting my time makes me plan better and look only at the main and important things in the view. The other trick is using a very limited palette - no more that three colors. This saves time too and also leads to more harmonious colors. I didn't quite fit in the 10 minutes, especially with the first sketch, but I finished it relatively fast and stopped myself from going back and fiddling with little details.

The top one I did with prussian blue, alizarin crimson and yellow ochre; the other one is just prussian blue.

Toronto skyline

Today was one of these very hot and humid days, typical for the summer in Toronto. But the breeze at the lake shore was making a whole lot of difference. We ended up walking for many kilometers along the whole bay undisturbed by the heat. It was a very pleasant walk.
This is a view of the downtown Toronto from Humber Bay Park.

Asiatic Lilies

Purple cherries

These are the first cherries I bought this year as finally their price dropped below ten dollars per kilo. Ridiculous prices, I know! Luckily I can live without this fruit. But after seeing Judy’s watercolor of cherries, I wanted to give them a try too – to paint them, that is.

Apparently I  need more reds. The only red I have is the cold quinachridone red, not counting the opaque cadmium. I used also quin. magenta and a violet, that’s why the cherries are so purple. I have to find the time for a trip to the art supply store…

Daylilies