Original watercolours
Freemans Reach Watercolour Demonstration
Photo of location
I found this spot by accident one day when driving around Freeman's Reach, looking for inspiration to paint. I later discovered that the location was also the site of one of Arthur Streeton’s paintings (“The purple noon’s transparent might” 1896) – I could empathise which his selection. I loved the feel of space, isolation and peacefulness of the location, which I have tried to capture in my painting.
Step 1
A simple preliminary sketch was done. Very little detail was included, just the key placement of the horizon, river line and a building or two. By doing this one avoids having a paint by numbers look to ones work and will let you take advantage of watercolours natural bent to do its own thing!
I do not usually pre-stretch my paper for a painting of this size, though in this case I already had some pre-stretched on gator board when the urge to do this painting took me, so I used it.
Step 2
I mixed sufficient pigment, with the correct water mixture for each of, the sky (cobalt Blue), distant fields (Cobalt Turquoise and Cadmium Yellow) and foreground (Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Cadmium Red). This has to be done in one go so you do not need to go back and strengthen the under wash later – which can cause unwanted mud. I washed the sky down to ground level and left a bead of pigment at the bottom of the wash. Into this bead I laid in the middle ground wash of a light green colour (I was careful to leave some white areas unpainted for sparkle), I warmed this wash with Burnt Sienna as it move down towards the river. On the right hand side, which is the foreground, I painted with thick paint of warm colours and then added additional texture with splattering of water, and predominately warm reds and some blues. I left the river unpainted, though I softened the edges a little so when I put the river in it will give a more natural transition rather than a hard edge. I left this to thoroughly dry.
Step 3
The distant hills were painted in next (Ultramarine Blue and a small amount of Alizarin Crimson), without any pre-wetting as I wanted to create a bright “clear day” effect – I did pre-wet one small area between the hills to enhance the feeling of distance. While the bottom of this wash was still wet I dropped in the distant tree line, on the left, again leaving some under wash showing through in patches to indicate distant fields.
Step 4
Some trees were dropped in with Raw Umber and Ultramarine Blue into the wet hills and I continued these down the left bank of the river. I made sure to add form with shadows and some thicker paint to make the trees look real. As I moved closer to the foreground I used more Raw Umber and less Ultramarine Blue as well as increasing their size and detail to bring the trees forward in perspective. When I painted the trees I started by using the side my brush, without too much moisture, and quickly moved it in a random fashion over the tops of my paper to give me a range of varied edges. I left lots of spaces, between the leaf masses, to give the tree and natural shape.
Step 5
The right hand distant hills came next in stronger tones of Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson. The river followed this, which was painted in a slightly stronger tone of the sky colour. This too was strengthened in tone and colour as the river moved towards the bottom of the sheet. While this was wet the reflections were dropped in. The reflections were warmer and more distinct towards the foreground and bluer and less distinct in the distance. Some form was added to the bank with varying colour and tones. Some highlights were scratched into the water line.
I also lifted some pigment from the very distant hills to enhance the feeling of space. This was done by wetting the area and then blotting with a tissue.
Step 6
The two big trees and right hand bank shrubbery went in next. The top tree serves to connect the sky with the foreground while also stopping the eye from running out of the painting. The bottom tree connects the foreground with the middle ground. I left plenty of empty space when I did this tree to allow viewer to see parts of the water and the far bank, it added more interest for the eye to experience. Some of the lighter branches were scraped in with my fingernail. Other than this the foreground remained, as it was in the first wash – if you get this right it help give a painting a clean feel.
Step 7
The buildings were done last, along with some distant cows, birds and other minor details. The strong shadow around the buildings helped to anchor them to the ground.
Dimensions of finished work:
½ sheet rough watercolour paper. 530 mm x 350 mm