Rhapsody in Bluebells

 

This photo of Hitch Wood was taken in 2014. There were lots of others. This one, in particular, makes me think of Tall Ships floating on water, the leaves the rigging.

I tried to turn the photograph into something that gave this impression to the viewer. After a few attempts, I decided I needed to take out the red, and concentrate on the blues and greens.

I finally decided on this version. 

Day 1 05/05/2022

I started painting in Get Painting Group. By the end of the session, I decided it needed to be bigger than A4.

Day 2 06/05/2022

Started again on A3 300 GSM / 140 lb, Cold Pressed (NOT), Textured - Heavyweight Watercolour Paper

Wet on wet green and blue for background. Started sketching the tree outlines.

Day 3 

Not much progress. Struggling with getting the mauve and blue of the bluebells mixed.

Lost track of days spent on this, because of learning curve for the caravan, and then the very hot weather.

New Day 1 July in Suffolk

Had to re-think the technique for this as the water-colours have dried. Using both wet in dry and wet on wet.

New Day 2 July at home

Started to push trees into the background in preparation for structure of branches.

New Day 3 August 10 at home

Filling in the background and started the branches.

New Day 4 August 11 at home

Adding structure to the background

 

and started the woodland floor.

Adjusting the trees in the background 

and smoothing out the woodland floor.

Looking back, I should have laid a ground for the background woods and floor. It needs some more tweaking to bring it together.

New Day 5 at home August 12th

Calling this finished. I think I'll varnish it, although it's a watercolour. The satin varnish makes it look wet and so the colours zing.