Osher Watercolor Explorations: A Blue Virginia Mountain

Friday marked the last session in my Osher Watercolor Explorations class, and we focused on painting landscapes with skies. 

I had fun preparing for class by painting clouds off my front porch the day before.

The painting was meant to be expressive of the clouds without being literal.  I laid in a flat wash of Ultramarine Blue, and quickly, while the painting was wet, lifted out cloud shapes with a paper towel.  I then mixed a blue gray by adding a bit of Burnt Sienna to the Ultramarine Blue, and watering it down quite a bit, and added that in to create shadows under the clouds and within them.  

For my class demonstration painting, I selected a photo I took on a recent trip to Virginia to visit with family.

I was taken by the clouds, the blue shadows, the hazy mountains receding in the distance and the way the blues transform into greens as they approach the foreground. 

I hope you get a chance to go outdoors to paint this summer.  If you're not able to, why not paint your own version from the photo above?