Painting the Shops Walk, Plein Aire at Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia MD

I enjoy the adventure of painting outdoors and Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia is a beautiful place to paint.

During the summer I want to paint outdoors every weekend and since I live in Columbia MD I can take advantage of the many beautiful paths parks and lakes in the area.

The scenery at Lake Kittamaqundi in downtown Columbia is lovely and there are so many views to choose from. This time, I choose the view of the sidewalk in front of the restaurants that face the lake.  I was inspired by the fountain at the end of the dark shadow cast by the building on one side and the dark trees on the other created a very dramatic scene.

I set up my easel at the bottom of the stairs by the hotels where there is a lot of room and I would be out of the way of people.

 The Restaurant Walk at Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia MD

I started with underpainting blue to get the composition and the values right. My approach is to start with the background and work into the foreground. It is very challenging to paint the architecture at the lake because it is so unique and requires a lot of attention.  One of the things that attracts me to the lake are the divergent lines that seem to go in so many different directions that you do not expect, but I found that I had to correct the picture several times to accommodate the lines.

In the background is the iconic bowl-shaped fountain that the lake is famous for. The red brick sidewalk leads your eye to the fountain.

The foreground turned out to be harder than I anticipated. The orange-red brick of the walkway was a difficult color to mix effectively. Not just because of the technical problems of the color itself but because the greens surrounding it would give contrast so I felt that I had to get it just right. I had to take some license here and there to make sense out of some elements but that is what art is all about. It is an interpretation, an illustration and a story at the same time.

I had to do a little bit of fine-tuning at home to get all the details in so you cannot truly call it a Plean Aire painting but it is still a wonderful painting of the lakefront.
A lot of wonderful people stopped by to say hello and offer encouragement. I am so appreciative of those encounters and hope to see the same new friends in the future.

If you live in Maryland near Columbia, and hou would like to see this painting before you buy it please contact me.

Watercolor Sketch Blue Hills River In Autumn

This is a little landscape sketch of a river that I did on a practice paper.  It is about 9x11 inches. It is not impressionist or pointillist but representational with a style that leans toward the impressionist approach.   I tried to take my time to sketch it in knowing the foundation sketch is the most important but I had trouble making sense out of the resource material. I stopped when I did because I was afraid that I might overwork the project, but it would have been easy to do more.

Watercolor sketch of Blue Mountain River in Autumn

This was a fun project and I learned a few things doing it.  I was working a lot with dots, dabs and small strokes.  I experimented a little with a flat brush but find the rounds are hard for me to get away from.  I would like to develop more ability to cover the entire paper and leave only selected areas white, but it is a sketch and that is the nature of a sketch- quick and light.

I hope you enjoy looking at it.

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Adron

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(c) Adron Dozat

Watercolor Sketch of An Old Barn

Not far away from my home is an old farm that has been turned into a park called Brayburn park. Behind the farmhouse is another structure a kind of log cabin that appears to date back to colonial times, it as proubly built as a storehouse or barn. It has a stone base and rough timber sides. I did a watercolor sketch of it one afternoon.

Watercolor Log Cabin Shed

(c) Adron 2015

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Road in Autumn a Watercolor.

Here is a little painting I did while showing a young student some things about painting in watercolor. It is a simple road snaking through the autumn trees.

Autumn Road, watercolor by Adron

After a quick sketch I did a wash of yellow over most of it. I dropped in some reds and greens and let them blend. I did a wash of blue grey for the asphalt.  After things dried I began to layer in darker values of color with a dabbing approach. I mixed the colors on the paper. It was necessary to give the background a clear wash to soften things a bit. I used a little dry brush on the road. The tree trunks were drawn in with a small brush.

(c) Adron 2015

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Landscape Painted With Dry Pastels

I do not do dry pastel very often but I wanted a break from the usual watercolor so I dug out my box of pastels and tried to see what I could do. I think it turned out OK for a first effort.

Taylor's Field, Pastel Painting On Paper

It was not a complete set of colors and not the colors I would have chosen but I feel it is important to work with what you have so I struggled through with it.

Ignore the composition or the lack of it. There are too many barriers to the eye and not enough to engage the viewer. I thought I might put a big tree on the left side or maybe the right side to balance the fence post on the left.

The values ware a real struggle for me, I wanted the far field to be lighter and the color duller. The trees in the distance were fine, I kept adding layers on top of layers to get them right. I am happy with the mountain, I did layers and then had to brush some off to reduce the intensity of the value.

I like the choppy effect of the medium. There is something to be said about feeling the medium contacting the paper and feeling the grind and rub as you go along. I feel I need a lot more practice with this medium before I really enjoy working in it.

(c) Adron

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Watercolor Sketch of Autumn Scene

Here is a watercolor sketch I did of a road with autumn trees on each side.

Autumn Landscape With Road Watercolor

It is a simple "U" composition where the trees on each side make the scene like the letter U. The scene is a little too direct, your eye goes straight up the road and ends at the far trees.

I was trying to get more impressionist in the treatment of the trees and the general scenery and then have an area of sharp reality. I was in the mood to do orange and reds.

The trees and undergrowth were built up in dabbing technique and I mixed colors on the paper by dabbing fresh color into the wet of the previous color. I had a little trouble with the values and as such it looks a little flat. I should have made the distant trees and fields more pale. A mountain behind the trees would have been a nice addition for depth.

Watercolor Sketch of Country Road.

This is a watercolor sketch I did in my spare time. It is of a country road with some trees and fence post beside the road.

I was experimenting with the details of the foreground and trying to get the feel of the leafy foliage and the pinkish purple blossoms. I used a dry brush on the road to give it a rough texture. I didn't use many washes, just in the sky, and the background and a little as the under painting for the trees. I used smaller brushes and liner brushes a lot since I was approaching this as a watercolor sketch; I did some layering so it kinda crossed over into painting.

Watercolor sketch of a Country Road.

The perspective of the road may look a little off but the resource material I was using had some lines that looked a little out of the ordinary.

Barn Beyond The Meadow

This is a drawing I did in fine tipped marker.

Fine Tipped Marker Sketch of Barn Beyond The Meadow

I spent about four hours on it. I had a photo that I was working from and then embellished it. I wanted to get the texture of the woods behind and have contrast with the areas of the barn and the field. I wanted the barn to have a contrasting texture, and value.


The foreground needed to be darker I should have switched up to a broader point for it.

The composition is lacking. There is a focal point but there is nothing to invite the eye in. There is a sense where the flowers make a barrier to the picture. If I was to do a more serious project like an oil painting I would introduce a path meandering from the foreground and wrapping around behind the barn to draw the eye into the picture.

It was a fun study and great practice in texture technique- maybe I will use this as a study and do a painting of this.


(c) Adron

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Simple Marker Pen Drawing of Prairie Farm

This is a drawing I did of a farm surrounded by wheat fields on the prairie.

Pen Drawing of Prairie Farm

Fine tipped marker is a fun medium and offers a lot of opportunities for expression. You can master line and texture with a little effort. It frees you to discover basics of composition without the problems other techniques.

This is a very simple drawing- almost a doodle. The foreground was all wheat but I wanted to make the focus on the farm so I left it for the imagination, but I think the bottom left is too bare and it might have looked better with a fence or road leading to the farmhouse. The trees are just a texture with wiggly shaped dots. Instead of just drawing a line for the foreground hill I chose to use hash marks to give the feel of the wheat field.

It was drawn quickly. I used a sharp tipped marker from the grocery store, and it is drawn on printer paper, so we are not talking archival quality

I might redo it in another version with watercolor.

(c) Adron 13

Rural Barn Scene in Fine Tipped Marker

This is a landscape with a barn, a shed, and hay roles in a field. I drew it to show some kids what can be done with fine tipped markers.

Rural Barn Scene in Fine Tipped Markers.

I started by drawing a light pencil drawing. I really wanted to give a sense of distance, so I used a .005 and a .01 tipped marker for the mountains and trees in the background, for the foreground I used a .3 and .5 tipped marker.

I like using dots and short dashes to make images, it worked well for the trees in the back ground and middle ground.

I enjoyed drawing this and am happy with the results.

(c) Adron

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Blue Ridge Mountain Road Watercolor

Road in The Blue Ridge Mountains 

Here is a painting I did in watercolor of one of the roads in the blue ridge mountains.

I did it with a lot of washes at first using a wet into wet technique. The background mountains and hills were wash and almost left alone at that point. I did a little darker green texturing in the hills to show the trees on the hills.

The fields were washed in yellow at first and when the that dried I went over it in greens to give the field texture but leaving some of the yellow to show through.

The trees were done with a wash and then texturing over the dry wash using a signature brush. This allows me to use the brush to draw the texture in. The and the forward fields were done the same way.

The road was a problem. At first I used small brushes to draw blue streaks across it but the picture was beginning to look too cold. I tried to add a layer of sienna brown to warm thins up but that looked too contrived, so I gave it a wash with panes gray. All this made it look too dark. I had to use clear water and a paper towel to lift out some of the color. It still looks dark but better and has a little balance between the bright greens and the cool  blues of the background.

I am very happy with this picture.

Watercolor Of A Villa By The Lake

This is a watercolor I worked on for some time. I think I got bored with it for a while but came back to it and finished it nicely.

It was inspired by a photo of a villa on some lake.  I started by giving it some light washes. I made a mistake and did the background mountains too dark, I wanted to give them less value so the focus would be more on the foreground. However, I kept working it over and lifted out some of the background using a wash and tissue to absorb some of the color and it also muted some of the detail.

Watercolor of Villa by The Lake

I used a small brush and a liner brush for most of the top work that was done over the wash. I know it is not the way most people paint but I enjoy it and like the results. It is a variation of pointillism. I use the liner brush heavily in the lake foreground to give the water a gentle ripple effect.

I think I used a lot of greens. In the future, I might use a separate pallet just for the greens.

(c) Adron

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Watercolor of Falls Across Lake Neuman

Watercolor Painting of Falls Across Lake Neuman

Water Color Of Falls Across Lake Newman.

This is a watercolor of the waterfall across a lake. It is painted on a sheet of 9x11 paper.

I had a lot of enjoyment painting this picture, and worked on it over several days whenever I had a few minutes here and there.

MY TECHNIQUE
The sky was a clear wash with color dropped into the water. The distant mountain was done in several washy layers.  The middle ground was done with a wash first and the details applied by dabbing after the wash was dry. The water in the foreground was a dry brush at first, but I was not happy with the effect so I gave a clear water wash over it and that smoothed out the roughness.

ARTIST CIRQUE
It is an OK painting but not one of my best.  I think I could have worked more on the composition before I executed it. I could have done more with the under-wash before going to the smaller brush and adding detail; maybe I did too much with the smaller brush.  The intention of the shore line was to make it uneven but instead it looks tilted.  There is too much water in the lower area; I thought of putting a near shore in part of the foreground, which I wish I had done so now.  The values are too flat in the middle ground; the colors should pale in the distance and be more brilliant in the foreground. I admit I was struggling with the medium a bit. I should have used more of the sky color in the water; the two different blues look inharmonious in the same picture, one knows logically the sky is reflected in the water and share a large volume of color.

Live and learn. Never give up.

I hope this discussion is helpful for you in your art.

(c) Adron

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How I Edited to Make a Nice Painting

When I looked at my resource material I was not impressed and almost decided not to paint this picture, but I did a lot of editing and made a nice watercolor landscape.

Rural Landscape with Floral Foreground

My resource materials did not have the flowers or the fencepost in the foreground I added them to give more interest. There were hills in the background but I added the distant mountain. There were many buildings in the resource material that I edited out, I moved the two I chose to give the picture a point of interest. I built up the road from what I had to work with so it would lead the eye into the picture in a pleasing way. I was concerned that the colors were all too cool. I struggled to warm it up a bit by adding warmer colors to the values. The trick with adding warm colors is that I didn't want to mute the red of the barn.

It is on a sheet of 9x11, 140 lb cold press watercolor paper.

I am very happy with the results of this painting and hope you enjoy looking at it.

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(c) Adron

Path Through April's Acres Watercolor

Path Trough April's Acres

This was a watercolor I did of a tree in early spring. The road was not so clear in the resource material so I built it up a little to give the composition more unity. A road that winds into a scene helps the eye find its way through the picture. It was a dark tree without any leaves but I was reluctant to use too dark of a color.  It was difficult to do the background and leave openings for the branches, it is not easy to paint around all the branches. I painted the background in several light watery washes and let the color blend on the paper. The fore ground was done with small brushes and layered.

This little watercolor was done on 9x11 cold press 140 lb paper.

(c) Adron

Autumn Landscape in,Watercolor

Autumn landscape Watercolor.

Here is a little watercolor I did over the last couple of days. It was started late at night Sunday, so I was only able to get the under panting and first washes in.

I was working off an old photo, and much of the detail was lacking.

The next two sittings I built up values in the foreground to make the foreground more brilliant and give a sense of distance since the background is pale.

I know I should not put so much texture in the trees but I just can't help it- I like the dots. It is nice to work in yellow since so many of my projects are cool greens and blues. The landscape where I live is very green; it is somewhat boring at first but after a while you learn to appreciate it and just how varied green is in landscape.

I like how complicated this picture is with the different middle grounds and the different textures between the sky, mountains, and foreground, the values and converging lines all make it interesting.

I am very happy with this project and may frame it.

Adron

Wild Lake MD Oil Painting Sanctuary Benches

This is a painting I did of the two benches at Wild Lake MD. This is a very peaceful place and I often see people sitting there admiring the view of the lake. This is the end of the lake that is a bird sanctuary, so I titled the painting Sanctuary Benches.

Oil Painting of  Sanctuary Benches Wild Lake Md

I started it on location one Saturday afternoon and after about three hours the light was changing too much, so I finished it at home. I spent another eight or ten hours on it. I did a lot with a pointillist approach, but not all of the painting is done that way. The background was "scrubbed in" thin and with minimum oil in the blend. I did several layers for the foreground one to get the values right and one to define the details. I might have overworked the project a little.

I was a little worried about the composition since there were lines like the vertical ones caused by the trees and the horizontal ones of the lake that would be considered bad form and poor structure. I think the path helps bring the picture together some since it leads in to the forward edge of the lake and the eye comes to the portrait of the benches which is the point of focus. I would have moved the benches to the point often called the "Golden Mean," but that would be contriving too much of the composition and taking away from the truth of the scene. My wife is always telling me my paintings must be honest, I tell her it is art and is all about interpretation and that if you wanted honest get a camera.

I sometimes feel like a parent who fusses with their child's hair before sending them off to school. I am very proud of this little painting.

I wish you could see this firsthand; the camera put some glare that muted the colors in the trees, they really are greener.

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(C) Adron Dozat

A Watercolor Sketch of Pathway Bridge

Here is a sketch I did one afternoon with watercolor while sitting on a bench next to the path near my house in Columbia MD. It was not my first choice but I didn't want to stand while painting so I found an old bench and looked around to see what was there.

 Pathway Bridge Watercolor Sketch Painted on Location.

I was experimenting with a technique of using only a large wide one inch brush and only a fine brush. I find that a large brush is great for washes and laying down large areas of color. I was playing with the edge of the brush to give the texture. I was enjoying laying color into color.

I lost some of the detail of the turn in the path in the background. I was a little unhappy with the color value in the trees in the distance and my attempt to darken the shadow of the trees behind the bridge was frustrating. I wanted to paint this entirely on location.

I was happy with the composition. It combines the "U" composition of the trees in the middle ground and the "S" composition of the road in the foreground.

It is not a painting I would sell but it is a good study for a more complex and comprehensive piece.

(c) Adron

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Watercolor Sketch of Rocks by Trees

I did this little 9x11 sketch in an hour on Sunday afternoon. It is a picture of the rocks by the creek near my house. It was late afternoon and I was feeling guilty about having so much fun by myself painting so I cut my time short and went home.

Watercolor Sketch of Rocks and Tree Trunks

I liked the contrast of textures in the green foliage and the brown wood bark, all set against the grey stones.

I used watercolor paint on a practice pad. I left the back-ground vague on purpose; partly because I wanted to develop the interest of the rocks in the foreground and partly because of time. I started with washes using a medium wide brush, and then moved to smaller brushes as I went along to build up the texture of the leaves. I finished with a signature brush for the twigs and grasses.

The composition is not the best, there is no real focus and the viewer's eyes don't really know where to go.  I should have spent more time in the earliest stages of the drawing to develop a tighter composition.  Still it was a happy hour sketching and I have no regrets except maybe a few bug bites.

(c) Adron

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Field in Luray VA.

Field in Luray VA

This is a sketch I did in watercolor while staying in a cabin in Luray VA. It was done at the edge of the wood and was looking out on a hill with a grassy field that had been mowed. The mowers roll the grasses into these big cylinders. They are just all over the field. The gravel road cut through the field and gave it some interest. I struggled with the composition because the blue stone path sort of started at the edge of the scene and led your eye nowhere. There were some flowers in front of the hay role so I developed that to give the picture more balance and movement back and forth.

When we packed for our little visit I forget to bring my paint brush collection and only had three brushes to work with. It was a challenge to work with so few brushes but I feel it helped me develop my skill a little.

(c) Adron

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