Clear & cool

This painting is dated the 26th of February. 2 days after "59 South".  Although the note on the margin says to Norman, I guess we were actually on the return trip when I sketched the thumbnail.  I thought I had some of the prelims as well as the final painting, but do not see the sketches now, so...  This painting has some qualities of spontaneity that I like, though they are not always easy to reproduce. Done on Canson 140#  WC  paper  7"x10"

East end of 11th

The note on this sketch from the east side of town is Dec 15 - the number I think indicates the year, not the day. Done on a small piece of Canson 140# paper maybe 5" x 9".  I like this one for its freshness and for me some experimental color. It took a very short time to do in the studio with sketches done from memory after driving around this corner earlier in the day.

Between Blue Mound and the tower...

Here is a scene I went looking for one weekend on the roads east of here near the construction zone. I have done drawings here in the last few years before this overpass and before you could see the farm house so easily from this spot.  You can see the notes on this painting done on location.  they tell what the conditions were.  Just about perfect... Mid afternoon, 60 degrees and clear with little breeze- not bad for the 10th of December...
This is actually E 1750 road looking south.
I was using a makeshift easel that I had put together for doing watercolor from the back of the bike, but it really does not get small enough, so back to the drawing board. I will have to post a pic of it one of these times.

the little gate

This painting was done from sketches after returning from a trip on July 19th.  The painting has the date of December 2, 2015.  We were all headed to ElDorado in Dorothy's car for Emma's baptizm at the local pool with a swim afterwards.   This road trip was one week after the trip in which we were stopped on the KTA just after torrential rains flooded the highway.  I have told myself before that it would be better to wait in Emporia than risk trying to get though.       I pieced this painting together from the thumbnail of the gate and one of the barn.  I put them together because I know of at least one such place near here- with the vintage man gate and an old farmstead in the background.  So a bit of creative cutspugh and olah...   I was dealing with a more specific grassy foreground than what I have done recently, so this was a bit experimental.  But it may be good to keep a work on the verge of failure so the mind and senses are at full attention.  As usual, the photograph leaves something to be desired...
Below are some of the preliminary things I did in the process of doing this painting. The finished painting is 11 by 15 inches on Canson 140# paper.

Here are the studies for the completed painting as well as the sketch of the gate done on the road while Stephanie was driving.  I do not always do drawings in such detail as this, but there were many questions about layout I wanted to clarify.  The gate was a new problem for me so I wanted to see how it would work with the foreground grass and the barn, before actually jumping into the painting.  I had some idea in my head before even these sketches.  There are always surprises with watercolor, but I was trying to make sure they were positive ones...  Its like babysitting grand kids-  you know they will surprise you somehow- but it is nice when they are possitive ones!

This is a very fun stage, when you begin to see how things are going together.  I did a full size sketch of the fence and barn just to get the juxtaposition of lights and darks to where it made sense, using thin white tape to delineate the wire by laying it over the top of the sketch in the dark spots. Strange approach I know, but it helped me....