Life with My Human Watercolour Series: 'Behind the House, Across the Street'

The Images Art Show is in November in Creston, BC and I am working on a dog series for it called 'Life with My Human'. The watercolour painting below is the sixth of this series. I am happy with it not only as a part of this series but also as it showcases a trail our Creston Trail Society www.crestonvalleytrails.ca  has recently developed. 

Life with My Human Series: 'Behind the House, Across the Street'

watercolour 10 1/2 X 13 1/2"

by Eileen Gidman

My neighbour and her dog faithfully walk in our neighbourhood twice a day at least. I meet them quite often and the little dog always wants to stop and greet me and then is happy to continue on. Truth be told I love the meet and greet as much as the little pup does I think.

With this painting I tried to capture a moment in time on one of their many walks. A time of sharing that makes the owner and pet bond ever stronger to say nothing of the health benefits of the regular walks.

Here is the piece well started. At this point there is a lot of masking to save some whites highlights in the foreground field of flowers as well as there being some masking on the first light layer of blues, pinks and yellows so that darker flowers can be easily painted in around them. The person's arms, legs and hair as well as the dog are also masked. 

The top third of the painting is mostly been done in a wet in wet technique. Whereas the trees in the mid ground are painted with successive layers. This gives a crisper look to the trees in front and a softer, farther away look to the trees in the background. 

The pathway in the foreground ended up being splattered with layers of paint onto a dampened paper.  I didn't want the viewer's eye to stop at the foreground path so I kept the pebbles soft and muted. 

You might notice that there are some changes between the photo and the painting. That is the beauty of painting. I removed some of the trees in the background to allow more of a view of the valley floor and the mountains across the valley. There is more colour in the hillside as the week before it was ablaze with blue chicory and pink poppies. The dog became dark in order to see her better and the person's shirt became white so as to keep the viewer's eye carrying forward down the pathway.  I hope that all worked but mostly I mention it to let you in on a painter's decision making. Thanks for stopping by my blog.