With so many events cancelled and stores closed, I’m spending more time in my studio, and being a morning person by nature, I’m up painting before sunrise. The studio windows look to the East, and lately my inspiration has been the sky just prior to the sun’s appearance.  The other day the colors were spectacular—intense blues and stunning oranges.

That morning I started brushing in ultramarine blue at the top of the paper, gradating the watercolor downward, adding cerulean (a more greenish type of blue), then gradually blending in some raw sienna mixed with a little alizarin crimson. Next I dropped in some pure orange hue near the horizon to achieve an intense color. While the paint was still wet I carefully brushed in horizontal blue lines to represent the distant clouds. I then quickly pushed thick dark ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, and sepia into the foreground, letting a few areas mix with the sky to achieve some soft edges.  A small area of white paper was saved to represent the spot where the sun would rise. Lastly I added a few birds at the horizon.

Another day, another sunrise!  Painting will get me through these difficult times.

KC