Unity Lake near sunset

I’ve been laid up and recovering from a virus, tired of reading and resting.  A good time to finish some sketchbook pages that somehow never were completed.  Did you know that art and playing with color are both very healing things?   I always feel better, even if my efforts are not quite what I intended.  

This page was started in January, nearly done except for the foreground.  Even though this paper is only 93 lb., it’s designed for wet and dry media, and I’m surprised at its toughness.  This page now has multiple layers of watercolor paint.  There is some buckling as you’d expect, but not that much.  The Aquabee sketchbook is useful to me for watercolor pencil, but I’m impressed with its’ response to watercolor.  

This page was drawn and painted as a plein air sketch before the sun set over the lake in the far background.  The light changed rapidly (why I didn’t finish!), and at one point there was an almost indescribable flush of turquoise that shifted to a blushing gold, filling the sky and water tucked behind the trees.  Long shadows tracked across the grassy spaces as hundreds of (sparrows?) twittered and circled and settled into the surrounding trees.  Colors glowed in the late afternoon sun and ebbed away slowly, as everything became very still.  

There is a great deal to be said for revisiting a sketch like this one; I will leave it to you to apply your own understanding.  

Art can be a wonderful thing.

Media
Aquabee sketchbook, 6x9”
Pitt artist pen, dark sepia
Daniel Smith watercolors
#8 round wc brush