Watercolor Triptych. A Day on the Llano River

I finally mailed off my Austin client's watercolor triptych.  I framed them with cherry and left extra wide mats, and I think he'll like them.  My client wanted a realistic rendering and wanted a local butterfly included, so I spent some time developing a technique for working with glazes and textures appropriate to the subject.  Here's a close up of my left painting. 

I got better as I went along.

The effort of coming up with detailed work was helpful, since I plan to do a series of loose paintings of the same... closeups and  and more abstract.   I spent  actual time on the river and took many photos and did many sketches.  There was a gentle wind, and I kept singing to myself, "Hear the wind blow..."

The Llano River and I became well acquainted.

My right painting.

My center painting.

...and my left painting.

The center painting is wider...12"....and the left and right paintings are 9" wide.  All are 30 " long.  The right painting is the river coming "in", the wider center painting is the point of view, and the left painting is the river going "out"

I was taken by the granite rocks, the transparency of the water, and the animals and the colors of the underwater strata.  Since the rocks are metamorphic and have been carved by rain and wind, they have strange inclusions and holes.....the navel(s) of the world.

    
 ..... ikebana-like arrangements of pools, rocks and grasses.

and pockets of still water and creatures....

I am fascinated by the river and water in general, and find the transparency and the difficulty of watercolor both appropriate and  challenging for the reflections, clarity, the torrents and deep still pools.  I will get better.  I can hardly wait to start on my series.

Comments

[Gary D F]

Jennifer, These turned out beautiful. I went over and looked at them placed over the windows and felt as if I was back at the river. I will share these with Shelly. Maybe we can discuss some paintings to go over my windows as well. I may a littler more out there though. HAH

[Shelly Hohimer]

They really are quite wonderful,Jennifer, thanks for sharing. And I think some paintings for Gary's place would be a wonderful idea. If that works out, I will have to make another trip to the Hill Country to check them out!
Shelly