WATER PAINTING #4 • 40 inches x 30 inches

DAY FIVE: Here's where I had last left off on June 2. As I had hoped, the blue shadows on the dock are nice and dry, so now it's time to paint the deck boards.

I was JUST about to start the deck boards, when I realized that all the railings really could use another coat of paint. So that ended up taking all morning, but not they look nice and rich and clean.

NOW it's time to paint the deck.

There isn't a lot of definition between the boards in my photo so I'm trying to figure out how detailed to make this area.

I decided to make the boards in the foreground more defined than in my photo, simply so that the level of detail in this painting looks balanced throughout the composition.

These deck boards took up the rest of my afternoon until it was time to pick up Nathan from science camp for the day. Oh, how we BOTH love that he's "in school" this week! 🙂 (He would be ready to start his school fall semester on Monday if they would let him.)

DAY SIX: I woke up at 1:30 this morning thinking about finishing up this painting (and decorating my guest room.) I can see the end is in sight!

Since the blue shadow is completely dry, I can just paint right over. I'm adding browns and blues, but the real richness comes from the fact that this is the second layer.

Here it is while stepping back. I just need to fill in the rest of the shadow and then maybe add a few more grasses in the marsh.

I've never been happy with the lemony-yellow tone of this grassy area. It's too neon, but in a yellowish way (a greenish neon would be fine with me since that's how they really looked, but this color just isn't right.)

An hour later and a zillion more grasses later, I think I'm done. (At least for now or it will get too muddy.)

I added orange and gold and light blue into the grasses, so then I also put really light highlights of those same three colors in the area above the grasses. (This is grass too, but it's farther away so you don't see the detail.)

Here it is from a distance (this looks darker than it really is because the sun has moved away from my studio for the afternoon.) I think these large paintings look much better from across the room. Which is good, I suppose since that's how they are viewed hanging in a home. This one would look great resting on a fireplace mantle as the focal piece of the room.