marh

Our assignment in watercolor class this week is to paint an abstract image of marsh grass. Our instructor, Eric Weigardt, emailed the class a demonstration video, showing how to paint from a photo of marsh grass. He talked as he painted, explaining his thinking and his technique. He used a big mop brush, splaying out the bristles before picking up paint from his palette.

The idea is not to make a literal painting of marsh grass, but to show the pattern of values and colors that give the feel of marsh grass.

I’ve painted this image six times now. It’s a lot harder than it looks. My paintings tend to be muddy and I lose the overall pattern. Below is my best effort so far, with an earlier attempt below that.