Recently I decided to create some little mini paintings to include in each of my orders, as a thank you to my customers for their business. I think it adds a nice personal touch, to receive a hand painted piece of art in your order! For my first set of mini paintings, I created this simple little winter hill scene.
This was an interesting lesson for me in repetition, exploration of color and pigment properties, discipline, working in a small size, and simplicity. I usually never paint the same thing twice. I tend to get bored repeating the same thing over and over, and so I'm guilty of never doing "practice paintings." I just go for it and if it turns out, great. If not, I move on to something else. But there is definitely value in repeating the same painting multiple times. Working out mistakes, figuring out what concentration/dilution of paint works best for each part, and refining details are all a good exercise in discipline for me. I'm glad I tried this, and I look forward to doing more!
For the background evergreens, I used a new (to me) mixture of Phthalo Green (blue shade), French Ultramarine, and Burnt Sienna (all Daniel Smith). It makes a lovely forest green that can be altered by changing the amount of blue/green or brown that you mix in. And dropped in wet on wet, the pigments separate a little bit so that the brown feathers out around the edges - perfect for trees! It was really fun creating my own mix of paints here rather than just reaching for a convenient dark green tube paint. Thank you to Geoff Kersey (watercolourlandscapes.co.uk) for this helpful color "recipe!"
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