Sunday Afternoon

Sunday Afternoon
Watercolor and ink on paper
5”x7”
Chris Breier © 2015

The original painting is available. I waited until a warm fall day to visit Lake Audubon to take a walk. I brought my camera with me to take reference photos and I used them to create a series of small watercolor paintings. They were created with a similar technique, I first sketched out the scene in ink and when it dried I added washes of watercolor. The paper is Fabriano Artistico hot press which has a smooth surface that works well for drawing with and ink pen; it also allows for subtle watercolor effects.

Yellow Leaves II

Yellow Leaves II
Acrylic on Gessobord
8”x10”
Chris Breier © 2015

The original painting is for sale, click to bid in the auction.

I thought I would try another attempt at painting this scene, but this time I included a portion of the creek at the bottom of the painting. I tried the technique of painting the background first and then painting the branches over it. The idea is that the background will look like it’s painted spontaneously because I won't have to avoid going around the branches. The problem is that this only works if you don’t make adjustments to the background after the branches and the leaves are painted, which rarely happens.

Autumn Trees, Glen Park

Glen Park, Autumn
8”x10”
Acrylic on Gessobord
Chris Breier © 2015

The original painting is for sale, click to bid in the auction.

We had a couple of unusually warm days late last fall and I spent the day taking pictures outdoors. This is a view of Glen Park from across the street, where the parking lot is on Glen Avenue. What makes this painting work is the contrast between the dark tree trunks and the brilliant colors of the Autumn foliage. The sky was initially painted with a transparent wash of light blue acrylic. Towards the end of the painting I used an opaque light blue to cut back into the shapes of the trees.