Old Brick Victorian Watercolor Painting

Beautiful Day For Painting Outside

Today I met up with one of my students at a small intercity park which is lined with beautiful old victorian houses and big shade trees. It was a private lesson and we chose this brick victorian as our subject. The weather was hot but we stayed in the shade and there was a very pleasant gentle breeze. With absolutely no humidity our watercolors were drying so fast that it resulted in a lot of unexpected hard edges and extra color mixing. It was such a gorgeous day we didn’t mind and I was pleased with both our paintings.

Most of the house was in shadow except for a few areas on the lawn, steps and walkway and the roof so I used a lot of rich darks which I love. The handsome old tree in the front was included because it overlapped the house and gave depth to the painting.

The brick is a mixture of warm and cool reds with some mineral violet and the different greens were mixed with olive, cadmium yellow light, cerulean blue and ultramarine blue. My grays are mixed rather than from a tube because I like to play with warm and cool temperatures to create sunlight and shadow. What a wonderful way to spend Sunday in the city of Denver.