Lemons in Tuscany Watercolor Painting

When I was in Tuscany teaching a watercolor workshop there were lemon trees every where and I painted this in a private garden in the town of Lucca. Tuscany is like an artists dream and everyone in the workshop did successful paintings that captured the beauty of northern Italy. I did this painting on hot press paper because the smooth finish shows the dripping paint. Each watercolor paper handles the paint differently and I choose different papers for different subjects. Hot press paper is not forgiving so I laid down the paint carefully and stuck with my original decisions. One of the fun things about a workshop is putting all the paintings together at the end of the day for a critique. We all chose different subjects in the garden and seeing all the paintings together was the perfect ending to a day of painting.