Category Archives: Watercolors

Watercolor on watercolor paper. I have used both hot pressed and cold pressed papers but generally prefer light exploratory washes on the flatter texture of a cold pressed paper.

Midday light at the Bruges Harbor. August 17, 2025. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5 "

Midday light at the Brugge Haven, watercolor, August 17

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Midday light at the Bruges Harbor. August 17, 2025. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5 "
Midday light at the Bruges Harbor. August 17, 2025. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5 “

I went out Sunday morning to explore more of the scenery around the Bruges harbor. There is one area in particular that I’ve had my eye on for a while. It’s the terminus of the Zeebrugge harbor, where large cargo ships come to load or unload closer to town. Indeed, most of the heavy lifting occurs in Zeebrugge on the coast. Still, it is a large, industrial kind of place, which on the day I went did have one cargo ship resting in port.

I set up and spent about four hours. Three of them consisted in just getting down a composition in which the perspective read more or less correct. Given all the shapes it was quite a challenge. Then I had about an hour of painting, during which I was able to get almost all of the main elements in. However, the one set of objects that I did not attempt were the windmills, principally because I had forgotten to bring along my latex masking fluid(!). Their lines are far too white and too fine to attempt without putting in some blocking first, so when it came to the sky, I just snapped a photo reference and decided to finish it at home. This is the result. I like the sky!

Hot pressed paper allows for detail which cannot be obtained with cold pressed, that’s just one reason I’m such a fan. As for the subject matter, even though the main thrusts were large and simple, the composition had a lot of complexity to it, especially in the distance. There were a number of small white reflections. How to retain the white of the paper? Always a challenge. Due to all that, I am particularly happy with the results – and the windmills. 😉 No jousting was needed.

Oh, and by the way, the large buildings on the left are the same buildings depicted in Light Study on the Pathoekeweg but now 180 degrees in reverse and fronting on the water. I love recto-versos.

If you are interested in hanging this on your wall, please contact me.

Paarden Hoeve naast Fort van Beieren. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 12"

de Paarden Hoeve naast Fort van Beieren, August 4, 2025

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Paarden Hoeve naast Fort van Beieren. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 12"
Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 12″

Out towards Koolkerke along the Damse Vaart I found a sweet little farm house next to a creek. The whitewashed walls of the farmhouse brilliantly reflect the afternoon light, while the rows of willowy trees line the creek leading up to it. I decided to try and capture it. The first session was just for getting down a drawing for the composition. The second session was for painting.

Luckily, my new traveling watercolor box easily and firmly snapped onto my tripod while my Quacke traveling chair allowed me to sit outside for a few hours on Sunday to try and make the attempt. The light was not great and it was really windy, too. But I was too happy to even notice. Photo of my rig to the right.

This is a study. I hope to create an oil based on this composition soon. It’s such a typically Belgian landscape. So intimate. I might try to add in the horses – which did stop by to say hello. I promised I’d bring apples next time. They said: Ney 😉

If you are interested in this watercolor shoot me an email.

Arriving Londonderry II. 22 June 205. Watercolor on hot-pressed paper. 21 x 32 cm or 9 x 13"

Watercolors of arriving @ Londonderry, Ireland, June 22, 2025

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Arriving Londonderry I. 22 June 2025. Watercolor on hot-pressed paper. 21 x 32 cm or 9 x 13"
Arriving Londonderry I. 22 June 2025. Watercolor on hot-pressed paper. 21 x 32 cm or 9 x 13″

When you’ve been out at sea for five days, with the endless horizon stretching in all directions, it is thrilling to spot land once again. As we headed up the coast, approaching Northern Ireland, the Observation Deck became crowded with other passengers who seemed to feel the same way. Excitement, beauty – and the play of light upon rocks and hills and GREEN vegetation!

Arriving Londonderry II. 22 June 205. Watercolor on hot-pressed paper. 21 x 32 cm or 9 x 13"
Arriving Londonderry II. 22 June 205. Watercolor on hot-pressed paper. 21 x 32 cm or 9 x 13″

I brought out my trusty travel box to try to capture some of this excitement – and this light. The challenge of doing a watercolor under these conditions, not only of rapidly changing light, but also of a steadily changing composition of forms (due to a moving boat), meant making quick decisions about what I wanted to say and then sticking with it. Land, sea and sky: three elements in their awesome simplicity. Because of all that, I feel the second attempt is more successful than the first. Even a learning based on the first. I’m posting both because I’m not ashamed or embarrassed of the first one, it has some nice energy, motion and light, but overall, I feel the second one is a bit cleaner. Each one took maybe an hour – at most.

Anyway, here they are Arriving Londonderry I & II. If you are interested in either of these pieces please shoot me an email.

Signal Hill, St. John's Newfoundland. 17 June, 2025. Watercolor of hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 13"

Two Watercolors of St. John’s, Newfoundland, June 17, 2025

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We had the chance to visit Halifax, Nova Scotia and St. John’s, Newfoundland as we traveled up the coast preparing for our transatlantic crossing. In Halifax, though I had intended to sketch, I spent most my time at its Art Museum, enjoying their collection of Inuit Art. The second floor had some gems. I find the art of Indigenous peoples resonates very well with the Modern Contemporary impulse – but it’s often better, more authentic. The Museum also had some precious early 20th century watercolors by an artist named Henry M. Rosenberg. Ah… He was new to me, now on my radar.

Signal Hill, St. John's Newfoundland. 17 June, 2025. Watercolor of hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 13"
Signal Hill, St. John’s Newfoundland. 17 June, 2025. Watercolor of hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 13″

Luckily the sun shone well enough when we pulled into St. John’s so I was able to get a brief sketch down at each of the cliffside locations we visited before we had to return to town. (Both pieces were completed later as we headed out to sea.) The Signal Hill piece is perhaps the more effective of the two as it emphasizes a really strong composition. I like the treatment of the sky and the sea – cause that’s how they felt that day. I also feel relatively successful at holding back the white of the paper for those white blossoms on the waving seagrass in the foreground. It was a very windy day!

Cape Spear, St. John's Newfoundland. 17 June, 2025. watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 13"
Cape Spear, St. John’s Newfoundland. 17 June, 2025. watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 13″

The second piece comes from Cape Spear. It is a remote location about 30 minutes drive from St. John’s. It was, so we were told, the easternmost point of land on the North American continent(!). It felt like it. While I was drawing, again just concentrating on getting down a composition for later completion, I heard one of our companions cry out “whales”. I turned my neck to spot a few baby whales breaching in the bay near to us. Thrilling! Otherwise, the two (geometric) buildings on the soft undulating hillside initially attracted me. Later, including the large foreground rock and steps along the winding pathway helped to establish distance. I used some latex masking fluid to hold back the light on some of those foreground elements. It worked out OK. With every watercolor I learn more and more about masking, wet-in-wet, and wet-on-dry.

If you are interested in either of these pieces please shoot me an email.

RGB but still leaning toward the light

RGB, but still leaning into light, June 1, 2025

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RGB but still leaning toward the light

About two weeks ago, as I was drinking my morning maté on our back terrace, I was struck by the light penetrating the outstretched leaves of our potted agave attentuata. So I grabbed my handy-dandy watercolor box and began to sketch it in.

My initial format was horizontal (landscape). What intrigued/challenged me was the silvered edges of the broad leaves. Would it/could it be possible to hold those thin edges back? I knew it would mean retaining the white of the paper, meanwhile filling in all the surrounding contrasts using hue, value and saturation. With watercolor I already knew just how challenging that can be.

So, after getting down a linear design that I liked, I used a combination of masking tape and latex masking fluid to hold back those fine edges. In the end I did three different versions: I switched to vertical (portrait) for the latter two. I experimented with the masking challenge as well as hammering out a simplified composition. I knew upfront that I wanted to accentuate three main chromatic areas; the challenge was finding which “background” landscape elements to include. The gesture of the agave was my guiding light.

Oh yes, and for those who are familiar with my penchant for the circle, I chose to include a yellow halo to help accentuate the stretching of that agave. I think it’s effective – yet hopefully subtle enough to avoid being formulaic. For today, I’m happy.

If you are interested in this piece shoot me an email.

Tree @ Hermit's Rest. Watercolor. May 5, 2025 9 x 12" or 23 31 cm.

Tree @ Hermit’s Rest, May 7 2025

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Tree @ Hermit's Rest. Watercolor. May 5, 2025 9 x 12" or 23 31 cm.
Tree @ Hermit’s Rest. Watercolor. May 5, 2025 9 x 12″ or 23 31 cm.

From El Tovar we biked out to the western edge of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Because of the scenery it’s one of the most amazing bike rides I’ve ever experienced. We arrived at Hermit’s Rest cold, wet, and happy – especially because of the hot drinks available there. Later outside, while having lunch, I spotted this lone tree standing like a sentinel over the canyon. Fantastic. My husband agreed to hike around for a half hour so that I could get down a quick sketch.

Once again, I pulled out my handy-dandy little easel box and (once again) found I could use my full arm with the charcoal pencil to sketch in a quick design. The gesture of the tree was so compelling, especially before its background of eternity. After my half hour, I felt lucky to have created a good start but, time-wise had no chance to do a watercolor. I snapped a photo of the dramatic lighting on the tree, hoping I might be able to complete it later.

Watercolor as a medium, is demanding because the paper provides the strongest whitest light, so it is critical to know what not to paint before you begin painting. If you don’t make those important decisions up front, you end up with mud. So, once we were back home I had an enjoyable afternoon laying in light background washes and then attempted to sculpt that tree. The lights and shadows tell its story. I’m pretty happy with the result.

If you are interested in this piece shoot me an email.

Afternoon Vista from the Grand Canyon's SouthRim. Watercolor. May 5, 2025 9 x 12" or 23 31 cm.

South Rim Vista @ the Grand Canyon, May 6th 2025

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Afternoon Vista from the Grand Canyon's SouthRim. Watercolor. May 6, 2025 9 x 12" or 23 31 cm.
Afternoon Vista from the Grand Canyon’s SouthRim. Watercolor. May 6, 2025 9 x 12″ or 23 31 cm.

We visited the Grand Canyon at the beginning of May. It was my first time there. Ever. Jaw dropping awe barely describes it. Actually, after leaving the car and taking in the view, I wept. (It could have easily been the travel fatigue but the overwhelming shock of it is no joke.)

The weather was cloudy, then rainy, then cloudy again but finally on the afternoon of the 6th, clear. I had a few hours free, so I grabbed my handy-dandy watercolor box and headed to the rim.

After a brief reconnaissance I found a good spot with some foreground interest to help establish scale so I set up and got to work. Principally, by creating this small travelling easel, I was now able to use my arm instead of my hand to draw. That makes a huge difference!!! And since I have been learning how to use a charcoal pencil for figure drawing at the Watts Atelier, I decided to use that for my initial sketch (in contrast to a graphite pencil which I have been using). The charcoal makes quick dark lines. Perhaps too quick and too dark but I was already on my way and decided to bugger through. After creating a design of the shapes before me I felt ready to begin laying in washes. The charcoal made the colors too muddy, too soon, so I had to improvise.

I had about an hour to try to capture the scene before me. The light kept changing so that meant the layout of the strata was also constantly changing: hidden, then revealed, then hidden again. Given all the challenges of the terrain and my ongoing experiments with the tools of the trade I’m grateful to have come up with something at all. I did snap a photo reference for later touch ups, but strangely enough, didn’t need to consult it much after we got home. A small half hour of tightening up was all that was needed.

If you are interested in this piece shoot me an email.

Watercolor of Koolkerke, Belgium. 23 x 31 cm or 9" x 12".

Koolkerke Watercolor, September 2024

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Watercolor of Koolkerke, Belgium. 23 x 31 cm or 9" x 12".
Watercolor of Koolkerke, Belgium. 23 x 31 cm or 9″ x 12″.

Late in the summer en-plein-air season I discovered this view of the church at Koolkerke near Bruges. I had just designed a new traveling pochade box, exclusively for watercolors, so I was happy to try it out in this new-to-me location. Two birds. One stone.

The box worked out well enough, though I always can’t help but tweak a few things. My interest was in having a sturdy but lightweight box that could exactly fit a standard watercolor block within its lid. Check. Piano hinges gave me a good easel angle. For the inside of the palette base I attached adhesive magnetic discs so my metallic watercolor pan and pots would stay put and not fall over. Underneath I attached a bracket that would take a 1/4″ 20 thread standard camera tripod mount. Check. Everything fit into my bike bag. Check, check, check. The only problem was the lateness of the season: it was very cold!

Pochade box for watercolors attached to a camera tripod.
Pochade box for watercolors attached to a camera tripod.

Still, I was able to manage a session or two, enough to lay in this watercolor as a study for an oil next summer. I really love the afternoon light playing on the buildings in the far middle ground. Luckily the farmer’s fields in the foreground gave me something to work with compositionally. As a study I’m happy and have my fingers crossed for next summer.

Conzettbrug, midday, looking south. 9 x 12" or 23 x 32 cm watercolor on hot pressed paper.

Conzettbrug, middag kijkend naar het zuiden

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Conzettbrug, midday, looking south. 9 x 12" or 23 x 32 cm watercolor on hot pressed paper.

Conzettbrug, midday, looking south. 9 x 12″ or 23 x 32 cm watercolor on hot pressed paper.

Another piece along the theme: ‘there is a light, never goes out”.

I began this composition last summer by creating an on-location drawing. However, as conditions in Belgium often are, the window of opportunity for creating a finished piece was far too brief. So, a few days ago, in the shining light, I decided to re-approach the project.

The challenge to this particular spot is that the perspective I really like is from the exact middle of a pedestrian bridge that spans the Coupure canal at the edge of the city. It’s a narrow span, maybe two meters in width? This allows for an active two way traffic flow of bi-peds, quadrupeds and bi-cycles. To plant myself in the middle of that bridge is to create an obstacle to the traffic flow: everyone is usually polite about it, but conditions are defo not optimal. Also, experiencing joggers there is quite something, their vibrations quickly announce themselves, and I bounce like a ceramic animal with a hinged neck on a car’s rear shelf window. 😉 So I gave myself enough time to create a fairly detailed value study but did not push my luck and chose to do the watercolor washes at home.

In addition, as anyone who has ever tried to create a drawing or painting of a boat harbor knows, boats come and go, so you have to quickly decide which to include and which to neglect. And even though that’s true of any type of painting, I think it’s especially true of harbors.

the Conzettbrug

2009, Drawing from the Conzettbrug in Bruges

In the end I had about an hour to complete my drawing, to solidify my vision of it, to understand the conditions of light – and to snap a few photo-references. Back home, as I laid in my washes, I knew I wanted to say something more than a sweet little study of light (I had done that anyway, some fifteen years ago, see image to the right).

So, because I’m deeply drawn to one-point perspectives and I’m still using a circle motif to set-up my compositions, I decided to emphasize that circle with a cadmium yellow line wash, strengthened it with alizarine crimson, after my descriptive washes were done. Now the circle was certainly strong but it looked like a James Bond bulls-eye. Not the visual echo I was looking for, so I started laying in washes of yellow ochre outside the circle’s edges, tipping the block so that the washes always dripped away from center. Nice.

The final cherry on top was the fine line of light, created by running a finely sharpened eraser-pencil, up and down, vertically through the center.

NB: I like it, though as usual, it’s extremely difficult to get a good photograph of a high-key watercolor.

Watercolour from Dinant looking south. October 2023. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 12" on hot pressed paper.

Watercolour, Dinant, looking south

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Watercolour from Dinant looking south. October 2023. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 12" on hot pressed paper.

Watercolour from Dinant looking south. October 2023. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 12″ on hot pressed paper.

We travelled to Dinant last weekend. It turned out to be the last blast of Indian Summer for this fall season. Perfect weather for biking along the Meuse. I quickly fell in love with this view and determined to get a good sketch of it down before we went home.

Which I did.

It took me a few hours (as it usually does) to get the composition down right, to select the important shapes, guiding the eye to them, but not abandoning the viewer there. I already knew that late afternoon light provided a fantastic spotlight on the buildings south of town. I also knew that compositionally, I wanted to include the rock ledges framing those buildings, right and left. The water, too, disappearing round the bend in the distance.

But besides the basic composition, there was also the value study to consider. It enhances a good composition. Also knowing where the paper would need to remain white was essential before making any stroke of colour. That late afternoon light on the buildings, rock silhouettes and water would be a challenge to retain in watercolour but I wanted to try. I also decided to make that attempt without applying any liquid frisket(!!) – because frisket usually ends up destroying the surrounding drawing so I have to redraw it anyway.

For the drawing phase I always use .5 thickness mechanical pencils. This time I reconfirmed to myself that I definitely do not like using an HB lead but rather an H. An HB is not only too dark, but it also tends to rough up the surface of the paper. That’s retrograde to our desire.

So I took a few photos of the light and stillness of the water on the first evening (not replicated on the second). No problem. With my drawing, I had enough to work with. The most important thing is always staying connected to how I felt and could still feel – in my mind’s eye.

If we were still in Dinant (and conditions were favourable), I would have tried to finish it up en-plein-air. But when you travel it’s just not always possible. As it is, one week later, back at home, this is what I have been able to come up with. I like it and also feel that if I did anything more it would begin to veer towards becoming overworked.

It’s so important to know when to stop. My mantra (particularly in watercolour): Less is more.