I was busy with the paints today creating trees. It didn’t start off that way. I began with playing with the paints, warming up. I really wasn’t in the mood to ‘do a painting’ anyway. I just wanted to have a play and relax. Zen. Thats all.

I began with mixing colours: lavenders, grey greens, russets, then decided to do some sky foundations. They aren’t too strenuous or taxing! A few of those, then a few with some skewer mountains… that was fun.
Soon the paints’ magic worked its spell and things began to appear…tree shapes, sky areas, then I kind of just went with the flow. All in all, I have about 10 little pieces with a variety of trees and bark. I may post the remainder in a later article as the one with the bark texture is quite nice.
This first image (above) with the brighter yellow green trees was created on dry paper. You can see the very sharp hard edges, this tells you it was on Dry paper. A skewer end was used to help make the trunks a little less stiff and straight.


The two watercolour tree reflections were created with the charging technique and then some gouging and scraping for the tree trunks & branches.
The lighter tree trunk were scraped off while paint was getting matte. The darker trunks were gouged using fine tip of a skewer while the paint was damp.
The water reflections was easy enough, all thats needed is to have that area quite damp and allow snippets of the tree foliage wash to slowly merge Down into that dampness and let gravity do its job.
The Tree Reflections are muted and soft. They were done on damp paper which will diffuse the colour, i.e. quite a bit of desaturation will occur.
The Detail tree (bottom) painting was on dry paper and the colour vibrancy is more intense. Using a skewer for the trunks and splatter for the foliage. Fun, fast and easy.

Not too taxing at all.
Beautiful – I especially like ‘Trees reflecting in a creek’. 🙂
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thank you so much, very kind words!
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…it is the way watercolour is allowed to be(come) which makes these so lovely, Debi–and the muted greens are equally lovely
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well said Lance! and thank you for saying so 🙂 I agree wholeheartedly…. watercolours allowed to be and not forced are the “ahhhh” ones.
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Oh how I love these Deb! And I always learn something from the way you describe your process. Thank you!!
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thanks Jodi! I try, I do forget at times (or in a rush by chance, LOL) but thats why its so fantastic that you will come on and ask me! thanks 🙂
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I agree with the others. These are just beautiful and I am always so happy that you give us an explanation of how you arrived here. Zen is so the thing. Thank you as always Debi! 💛💛💛
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hi Laura, much appreciation again and always for the feedback! zen in painting is great. not so good at it with other things though, yoga/pilates/tai chi 😦
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lol 🙂
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just the inspiration i needed today. Thanks!
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thank you Periwinkleblur! thats wonderful; I’m glad to hear it inspired you! It was a bit of a rough day yesterday and I needed that kind of painting approach for myself too. Hope you have a good rest of the week 🙂
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It’s sometimes more about the process. Hope the rest of your week goes better as well. 🙂
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thank you very much 🙂 it should!
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Magic indeed 🙂
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thank you kind sir!
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