Sunday, August 16, 2009

Study of Tenaya Tapestry


"Study of Tenaya Tapestry"
8" x 12"
Original Watercolor

This painting is a study I did last week in preparation for the full sheet painting I'm working on now. This one is on Arches rough 140 lb, although the big one is on Fabriano cold press 300 lb.
The colors in this digital photo are more vivid than in the actual painting. I'm still learning how to get an accurate color reproduction with my camera. The subject is a tinaja. Tinaja is a spanish word for earthen jar or tank. A tinaja is a pool of rainwater that collects in depressions in the sandstone. They can last for days or even weeks and so they are an important source of water for wildlife (or backpackers occasionally.) Tinajas are one of my favorite subjects for painting because they are pools of clear, cool water that reflect passing storms or blue sky or the rich colors of the sandstone that surround them.

2 comments:

  1. You certainly have captured the distance in this one and the colors are wonderful.

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  2. Thanks Vicki, venetian red and indian red are two beautiful colors that I don't get to use often when painting still lifes. But I see them in the red rocks here in the desert so I can use them in my landscapes. I'm glad you mentioned the illusion of distance in this piece. To create the illusion of a ground plane receding far into the distance and the sky plane returning to the viewer, on a flat sheet of paper, is one of my motivations for painting.

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