Doing plein air watercolor.

To those who like to paint in watercolor there's a great blog I know by an artist who recently expounded on her equipment for plein air watercolor, and recently took a mountain biking trip with her watercolor stuff along. It's an interesting read. Jessica Lanan is a book illustrator but also likes to go plein air painting (or free range painting as she calls it). Here's her latest post.

Equipment for a Free Range Artist Part 2

Trip West

This is from a recent road trip we took to Nevada. I wanted to do more paintings along the way but we were pressed for time and it's a long way to go. But I did get one painting done at sunset in Utah, looking toward the cliffs of Bryce Canyon.  We found a camping spot on the road to Cedar Breaks heading west. It was late in the day and we had already eaten when we set up camp. So without the cooking to deal with I had enough time before sunset to try a small painting. Across the valley the sun was lighting up the cliffs of Bryce Canyon off to the east. I had to paint this in fast before the sun set dropping everything into shadow. Later as dark set in the full moon came up over the mountains. Fabulous place! Here's that small plein air painting.  Utah Cliffs, 6 x 8.

White Iris

Here are some more flowers from the yard. The white iris are blooming. This was done all prima as a still life, all in one sitting. I have other flowers about to bloom so maybe I will try some more iris.
White Iris, 10 x 8.

Lilacs

The lilacs have been glorious this year so I thought I'd have a go at painting them before they start to fade. They are tricky with all those tiny flowers - obviously you can't go about it by painting each little flower. But you want it to have the look of a bunch of little flowers.  Also there's all that luscious purple and lilac to paint - not colors I get use in great quantities usually.  Here's my take on it.  Lilacs, 10 x 8.

Spring Greens

I got out to paint early Sunday morning on a really overcast day although there was a strip of pink sky near the horizon. By later in the day it was pouring rain. Things are starting to look a lot greener around here.

This open space called Peschel is one of the many Boulder County Open Space properties. Every other year or so the county has a Plein Air Paintout exhibit. The rules state that the paintings entered have to be painted plein air on one of the open space properties. We have from now to the beginning of August to go out and see what we can do, and then enter our best. I did it the last time they had the paintout and it was fun. So here's the first of many (I am sure) paintings I will do this summer on open space properties, hoping to come up with some good ones by August, when I'll choose my four favorites and enter them in the contest. Here's a link to the Plein Air Paintout:  http://www.bouldercounty.org/os/events/pages/paintout.aspx

This painting, Spring at Peschel, 9 x 12.

Mothers Day Flowers

I received this giant bouquet of red and pink peonies and thought it was not only great to look at but also a great chance to try painting it. So here's a painting of the flowers. I had fun with jar, the petals are pretty tricky.

Mother's Day, 10 x 8

Spring hillside

It's a great time of year to go outside and paint. Green is starting to show up in the countryside now and I liked the look of this hillside with the new grasses starting to fill in amidst last year's skeletal remains of old mullein plants and patches of raw earth in the early morning sun.

Mullein Hillside, 9 x 12.