Winter is coming...
Copyright 2020 Robert Mesrop Well, actually -- winter is here. Not officially yet, but today feels like winter because we had a light sprinkling of snow all day (and the forecast has a big storm on the way for Wednesday...). Today, I spent several hours in a Zoom watercolor workshop that has kept me busy each Monday morning since the end of August. It's been a great discipline, and there have been interesting challenges posed by our workshop instructor, Robert Mesrop. Our final session for this term was devoted to tree branches, something I have struggled with forever. Robert provided a photo of a large, and very gnarly, Weeping Beech tree in Yarmouthport MA. (right) The focus of this exercise was partly on conveying depth through foreshortening -- no easy task. Since the reference photo targets the branches and not the background, for me the challenge extended to how I could suggest the background yet not allow it to "take over" the painting. I began by sketching a li...