Riverscene

A plein air watercolor from my trip to Provence. They took us to a lovely setting with a river running through an area with an old stone mill, the millers house, and a hillsides behind the river lush with vegetation. My fellow painters immediately set out to capture the picture postcard scene. As tempted as I was to draw those buildings in, I forcibly restrained myself with howls of “damn linear perspective!”… as in “don't do it Nancy this is not your forte, focus on the color. Color is what you do well.” And given that the river had so many absolutely gorgeous reflections of color in it, it was an easy compromise to make. Had I succumb to the lure of drawing that quaint scene with those beautiful little buildings, I would've ended up spending 3 to 4 hours of frustration and a piss, poor drawing, and nothing to show for it. Thankfully, I listened to my inner voice and ended up with a nice abstract watercolor of the beautiful reflections in the water.