Heart's Desire - Day Eleven of the 30/30 Challenge

Heart's Desire, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #13

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Day eleven of the challenge -- I made it to the double digits! Again, a very busy day and I did not get to start painting until much later in the day. So I worked on this piece based on a previously finished plein air version of it at Ruby Beach, Olympia National Park, Washington. I used analogous color scheme of blues and purples as well as greyed-down versions of them by adding a bit Cadmium Orange and Quinacridone Burnt Orange to the mixture, hoping to create a more somber mood. For the tree and shrub shapes, I tried to design the linear elements to contrast and compliment the diffused cloud mass and the distant headland with soft edges. For the near-shore rocks I combined staining and granulating pigments so that when I use a palette knife to scrape off the damp colors to create the light planes of the rock, only the staining colors were left in the scraped park, creating more interesting color variations. I love the mood of evening gradually sinking in and hope to convey it in this painting... Dusky hours are my favorite ones in a day. How about you, my friend?...