Watercolor of Mt Ashland

I can’t help but want to paint Mt Ashland from time to time. It’s a toss up between Mt Ashland and Grizzly Peak. They are like sister or brother peaks across from each other in this south east pocket of the Rogue Valley surrounding Ashland Oregon. I love this place a lot. The view is something to take in. From my son’s elementary school- Helman- there are some really nice views of both mountain peaks. On Memorial Day, this year, I took my son with me and drove around Ashland looking for a good perspective. Maybe I don’t always choose the best perspective or composition but I have a tendency to want to capture a wide angle perspective when plein air painting outside. 

I have not painted in watercolors for a very long time. Like 4 years. I have some M Graham paints I bought. They have honey in them so they are pretty gooey and can take a little while to dry if you paint heavy with them.         

Driving around that Sunday, I settled on Helman Elementary School. I had done an acrylic plein air from there a couple of years ago on an overcast day which was not ideal. This time it was a bright sunny day with a couple of streaking high clouds. I really didn’t want to take my French easel and all of the accoutrements. I was feeling lazy and hurried and decided to try something new.

It was a nice time of day and the light wasn’t changing too rapidly from the perspective that I painted from. I had my water color pad in my lap and my palette in left hand and brush in right while sitting in a director’s chair. My son was roving around - spinning through his imagination. He can keep himself entertained for a while. For free! lol 

I worked from light to heavy and I used white to get my snow on the peak. I used the paint more like gauche in a way. I worked for about two hours and we both got tired. Overall I’m happy with the results, notwithstanding, I would rather work light and try to use the blank paper to show snow. 

Thanks for reading and hope you feel inspired to go outside and paint!

Cheers

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