Moving Up

Now that I have begun to gain a little experience with watercolor painting I decided to move up to a larger paper size.  Back in August I bought myself a block of 14" x 20" Arches Cold Press paper.  I am working on a painting that is about 13" x 16-1/2".  Once gain, this is based on one of my photographs.  I printed that photo on my printer to half the size of the painting I am making.  I started by laying out a working sketch of the image, and then set to work with the paint.  This one is from a photograph that I took in 2018.  It is the old Alberta Wheat Pool elevator in Esther.  I shot this when I was returning from the reunion trip to southern Saskatchewan for our "Forgotten Prairie" documentary.  I started on this one while I was out at Nordegg in late August.  

Then I left it alone for quite a while.  I left all my art supplies out at the cottage and went back to the city for a while.  I usually only paint when I am out at the cottage anyway, and dragging all the supplies back and forth has become somewhat of a nuisance.  In between I also took a trip down to East Coulee for a couple of days.  I didn't return to Nordegg until mid-September and then tried to pick up where I left off.  But that week spent at the cottage in mid-September was filled with work on the guest cottage, and I never even touched the painting.

So it was not until early October... Thanksgiving weekend to be precise... that I got back to work on this painting.  The painting part is pretty much done now, but I need to get to work with pens and pencils to render and detail it properly.

Shortly after Thanksgiving I got busy with cottage construction, and once again this painting fell by the wayside.  I think this has been the longest dry stretch without me completing a painting.  I started this one in August, and here I am in November and its still not done...!

But, on my return trip to Nordegg on November 4th, I finally managed to finish it.  Now I can move on to something new.