Milestone for Me

Reverence for the Dawn

26 x 62 Mixed Media on Canvas

This painting has been an adventure. And a definite learning experience. I normally work 4 to 5 much smaller paintings at a time. This allows me to utilize paints I mix up on several projects. And it allows me to compensate for the needed drying time before but another color up against a particularly vivid one. But this painting was big enough that working on more than just it was next to impossible. It just took too much space.

I did have one smaller painting I was working on. It was my test subject. I had done a smaller study first - 10 x 24. But once I began on the large canvas I decided I wanted to do somethings a bit different. I would test a color or technique out on the companion piece I was working on but have not finished. I don't think you can do a 10 x 24 and a 26 x 62 and have them be exactly alike. A small place of uniform color would look flat on the proportionally bigger space. The larger painting required some subtle variations in big blocks of color. And much more detail work in areas like the stream. And yet the paintings should have the same feel.

Reverence

10 x 24 Mixed Media on Canvas

Here are the two together. I am happy to say I like the bigger one better. I didn't think when I began this project I would be able to say that.

There was a time when watercolor was done on paper that the size of the painting was limited to the size of the pressed sheet. Watercolor canvas has changed that. It is rather exciting.