Painting of the Week – Shades of Terracotta

Shades of Terracotta – Watercolor by Ellen Jean Diederich

I was taking pictures at a tourist site near Oaxaco, Mexico.  These sales-people were taking a break in the shade.  This painting has a lot of direction down the hill interrupted by the figures. The pots are the repeated motif.  So compositionally, this painting  leads the eye upward at a diagonal bringing you to the figures. Then the a light colored branches at the end of the wall lead you upward to the top of the page. The oversized white geraniums invite you back down into to the paining to examine it to check closer. For interest, I varied the pots slightly so you can compare them, and put the most detail and color changes in the figures.