Click the painting to stand closer, close enough to see the paper
In the Garden Shade
A painting of someone else painting, which is my favorite kind of afternoon. The shade under those trees is nearly black-green, and the trick was keeping it luminous instead of muddy: dark washes dropped wet into wet, then left absolutely alone. The little flecks of white are the paper itself, saved from the very beginning. In watercolor the light is not added at the end. It is protected from the start.
Placeholder artwork: “In the Generalife (1912)” by John Singer Sargent, public domain via The Met.