I usually paint on location or from photos. I find that when I try to paint from my mind’s eye I lack clarity and detail.  Yesterday I tried a little experiment.  The last two times we’ve left our house in the mountains I’ve been taken back by a beautiful display of fall colors in the same place.  Driving down the hill we come around a curve and find ourselves looking up at a very steep hillside.  The time of day we do this is the afternoon and the sun is shining on the trees.  The color is beautiful but the other thing that’s interesting is that the sunlight on the trunks and branches appear almost white, in stark contrast to the bright colors.  This image has remained really vivid in my mind so I decided to try to recreate it.  It actually came out pretty good.  I actually think the real scene had more reds and oranges and fewer greens and yellows.  I may actually try it again.  I had a lot of fun with it.

It’s watercolor with white and black ink in a 5 x 8 watercolor sketchbook.