Cabo San Lucas

In June 2010 I went on my first cruise. The itinerary included Cabo San Lucas and the stunning rock formation was something I knew I wanted to paint. These rocks are quite challenging to paint and I required a lot of help from my watercolor instructor to take it from plain white paper to the three dimensional look that finally emerged. This is done on 9x13 sized 140 pound Arches paper.

Koi Color

My son has been asking for a painting of koi fish for some time. I completed this watercolor on June 16, 2010. I like the unusual colors here that are not ordinarily seen in paintings of koi. The illusion of movement was enhanced by scrubbing the streaks around the fish.

Coronado Sunset

This is based on the same image as "Coronado View" but this one started with a paper covered with a wash of blue and orange. My instructor has mastered the beautiful cloud-filled skies and this is something I will be practicing using various colors in future paintings. I love the contrast between the brilliance of the sunset and the shadows that we see at the end of a day at the beach.

Coronado View

I completed this watercolor on 4/24/10 and it is a view of Point Loma from the beach on Coronado Island. It involved learning to layer the paint and use contrasts of light and dark. My instructor John Yato is teaching me about composition as well as things I've found difficult in the past: oceans and rocks.

Windy Sea

I just started up with a new watercolor instructor and this was his first assignment for me -- I did this one on April 7, 2010. It's been about nine months since I've painted so it was great to get a little painting done in one session. I'm still at the stage where painting waves is daunting but my instructor broke it down into a simple series of lines shaded one way or another. I'm anxious to try this with multiple colors next.