On The Beach In Mexico Watercolor Painting

The west coast of Mexico is a wonderful place to paint with rock formations jutting out of the water and areas where the jungle comes right down to the beach. I painted the distant hills while the sky color was still wet so that the colors would blend together and the hills would get lost in the mist. The closer hills were painted with warmer colors and then the rock formations were painted with different violets and earth tones and some of the colors were allowed to mix on the paper.

When I painted the water I decided to not do any drawing but simply went in with brush and paint and worked for a sense of rhythm and movement while leaving white paper to represent the foam. After adding a few darker blues and greens I stopped. Learning when to stop is one of the hardest things about watercolor painting and lots of paintings have been ruined because the artist kept going and added to many details. I had a limited time on this painting because we were headed down the beach to a cafe that serves the most delicious blueberry pancakes. So far it has been a fairly mild winter in Denver but I am dreaming of the beaches in Mexico and blueberry pancakes.