This is a case of art imitating art...for the Sequim Arts studio tour my friend Rocky Fankhouser displayed a couple of his beautiful turned wooden bowls on his hand painted table right in front of a cascading clematis on a sunny July day.
As always I started with a few thumbnail sketches to work out the value pattern of the piece, then I transfered the drawing to a piece of 16" x 21" 140# cold pressed Arches watercolor paper.
Since it's critical to have the ellipses accurate, I used a piece of vellum to copy one side of each bowl then flipped the vellum over and traced the other side.
To me, the most intriguing part of the scene is the light and shadow on the table and bowls, so I started the painting there....if that part didn't work I needed to start over.
I added just enough information to the table to 'reserve' the shape on the paper...I have been known to forget where major elements go in my zeal to paint the background.
Next I added the first layer of wood detail to the bowls and washed in the clematis blooms and leaves - very wet and intense.
After I darkened and simplified some of the clematis leaves I removed the resist and began cleaning up some of the hard edges left by the resist.
Here is the finished painting...I hope Rocky likes it - and you too!
