Plein air painting at the pond fountain at Land Park

So I finally get outside to do some plain air painting with our Plein Air Meetup group, and its 106 degrees out! I wonder why only a couple of us showed up? It actually didn't feel too bad in the shade next to the water. I was working with some new paints today that are much better quality than the $5 set of twelve tubes I was working with before. The tricky part is that there are only 5 colors...it just lends for more practice color-blending. They are made with a honey base so they have more brilliant color and don't dry as fast on the palette ( that was particularly important on a hot day like today).
I'm still trying to figure out the reflection and ripple effect that is created by water, so I keep challenging myself with it. My last attempt was at Hagan Park and today I'm at Land Park.  I started at the top with the sky and worked my way down with the trees and grass, and finishing with the pond.  I "cheated" a little bit because I used white paint to create the water spray (most watercolorists would say to use the white of the paper instead but without masking fluid, it just wasn't going to work). Although there were a couple other people painting, I was so totally focused, I probably wasn't very good company.

Watercolor of the sea and sky

So being summertime, I thought I would be out plein air painting regularly. But when it's 100 degrees outside, I find myself hiding inside finding art to "copy" in my own style. Here is my most recent imitation.

 "Plage de la Fontaine" (2013)
Original Watercolor by Alisa Laporte
Size 9 1/2 in by 3 7/8 in

Starry night

We were at a friend's house trying to figure out a Sip & Paint class...Drink & Draw?  Painting & Partaking? Anyways, we were deciding on a painting to create with non- artist type people that were there just to have fun and we decided on Van Gogh's Starry Night. Although it looks simple enough, and was very fun to paint for me, it is very complex. The impasto brush strokes, those small and short ones throughout the painting are very difficult too duplicate.  And then to complicate things even more, I was working with acrylic paint, which I rarely do...but the wine helped :) My favorite part was actually the little town.

Here is Van Gogh's original Starry Night:

My preliminary watercolor sketch:

And my acrylic rendition:

And the one my friend Rhonda did (still not quite complete):

Chinese style painting

I saw this art hanging on the wall at P F Changs and really liked the look of it so I thought I would recreate it myself.

So I used only black watercolor, instead of ink, to create the waterfall scene. As I painted, the scene developed into something quite different that the original picture. The original picture had more than just black ...but I decided to keep to just the monochromatic theme. I couldn't figure out how to put blossoms on the tree so it just looks like a dead tree.  The placement of the tree seemed so effortless in the original picture, but in mine it seems a little awkward. I added a mountain and a second waterfall to fill in the background.  And then trying to capture the movement of the water was a challenge, but overall I think it turned out well, but definitely with my own flare!