Painting in a Series........................
Over the many years that I have been painting I have always enjoyed painting in a series. This gives me the opportunity to bring to each new painting the knowledge I have gained from the previous one. My Golden Moon Series was started about 20 years ago. "Heron In A Golden Moon" was the first painting that I did with gold leafing after taking a workshop with Linda Stevens Moyer AWS, NWS.
This past January I taught a wildlife workshop and was demonstrating a barn owl. When the owl was almost completed it struck me that I really wanted to revisit my Golden Moon Series and so I added a gold leafed moon behind the owl and then painted in my black background. That painting was featured on The Laurel of Asheville magazine. In September I completed "Black Crown Night Heron" as seen below.
While working on this series I have also been working on trying to find a new watercolor paper. After painting on Winsor & Newton 140lb watercolor paper for over twenty years they closed their plant several years ago and I have run out of my stash that I had been saving. I have used many different papers over the years. Arches 300lb cp being one of them and it is great paper but just not my favorite for painting every subject matter. I recently tried some Twinrocker Watercolor paper......WOW....love this paper and even though its a little spendy its worth the investment. This paper is made in Indiana and is handmade with beautiful deckle edges. They have a large variety of papers that they make ranging from print-making to watercolor.....they even offer tinted watercolor papers for those painters that enjoy painting on a tinted surface. If you would like to try their papers go to their website: www.twinrocker.com.