"100 SLC Porches, No.11 & 12"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.11- watercolor on 9"x12" paper"

I've been working the last two weeks with the sumi-e style of painting in my watercolor painting class.  This week I finally felt that I produced two paintings that I could take photos of.  The above porch I used a great deal of the bamboo strokes and some simple line work to produce this wonderfully simple porch that is made even more warm by the wood siding that makes up most of this house.  This porch inspired me to try some of the simple and clean sumi-e brush strokes.  I also had fun with the trees on this.

The other porch below held an architectural outline that suggested an oriental treatment.  It's a very common house that you find in the Salt Lake Valley.  They are often referred to as "Bungalow" style.  I was drawn to the greens and the warm wooden railing that stretched across this one.  However, on this one I was not able to stick as closely to the sumi-e style of painting because the yupo paper did not want to "play" well.  In other words, I discovered the hard way that proper sumi-e painting is best done with paper that absorbs water.  This is not what happens with yupo paper.  So I decided to add ink to finish out the outlining on this porch.

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No. 12- watercolor & ink on 9" x 12" yupo paper"