Painting of the Week – The Rustling Reeds

Create the Setting

Last weekend, Paul and I boated to Little Pelican Lake and stopped to watch a couple of loons fishing. They would dive under the water, pop up in another place and then meet up again. One time, they shared a fish. Its understandable why the Loon is the Minnesota State Bird with their 10,000 Lakes. You are more likely to see them near “The Rustling Reeds”, but we have never seen these birds come ashore, usually just as a pair and once in a great while with their young. They do meet in groups sometimes as last summer we saw what must have been a loon party of at least 20 at dusk in the middle of the lake. It is fun to hear their calls.

In college, I studied backgrounds for a whole semester, yet I’m still learning about them. The background is often the big shape in the painting. It is a good place to explore color and create moods and invite the viewer in. In this watercolor, I worked carefully on the reeds but was disappointed how the closer reeds looked as they all just whooshed off the top right. By identifying what bothered me, I altered the top edge of the painting making this a painting I love.

Sincerely,

CHECK OUT MY FACEBOOK | PINTEREST | TWITTER  | LINKEDIN | INSTAGRAM | BLOG

______________________