Thursday, July 26, 2007

"River Glow" Watercolor Painting of Zion Canyon

Watercolor painting by Roland Lee of Zion Canyon along the Virgin RiverI am fascinated by the effect of water moving through the deep canyons of southern Utah. For the past week I have worked on this painting of a little spot along the Virgin River in Zion National Park. I love how the warm reds and yellows of the cliffs and trees reflect in the cool green water. The steady work of this peaceful river has carved an immense canyon over eons of time, and tumbled countless boulders into smooth stones as they rolled their way down from the high mountains.

Watercolor painting demonstration by Roland Lee of Zion Canyon along the Virgin RiverEven though I first do a fairly careful drawing in pencil, I don't pay much attention to the edges at this point. Here I am just laying in glazes to establish the overall value pattern of the painting.







Watercolor painting demonstration by Roland Lee of Zion Canyon along the Virgin River

Once again I use loose washes of wet-in-wet paint as an underglaze. After these are dry I will lay in some darker glazes on top, defining the hard edges of the tree trunks by using negative painting to preserve the light areas.

4 comments:

  1. Absolutely gorgeous....love your work. Very well done. I am a beggining watercolorist and I am constantly amazed at the huge amount of talent people have!

    Dan

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  2. Absolutely gorgeous....love your work. Very well done. I am a beggining watercolorist and I am constantly amazed at the huge amount of talent people have!

    Dan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the kind remarks Dan. I have been painting in watercolor for the past 27 years and still love it just as much today. Good luck in your painting. -- Roland

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  4. lovely.If envy is a sin ...boy am I in trouble. Geoffery Keating.

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