I have had a long love affair with water. One of my earliest journal entries was of a reflection study at Look Park in Massachusetts.

In the 90’s I explored water, this time my media was fiber. I was weaving on an 8 harness floor loom. Great fun! Now, all that know me understand my affinity for birds, especially those that frequent marshes, lakes, swamps and oceans. Hmmmmm, there seems to be a pattern here.

My latest acrylic, Who’s the Fairest, begins yet another study of water, but this time, with wonderful winged creatures. I’ve been sorting all my images, of water reflections, I’ve photographed over the years. Can’t wait to dig in, but first, I can’t resist playing with a new image I photographed a few days ago.

It really is pretty drab but……. when I looked through my sun glasses into the view finder there were these wonderful colors. It must have been caused by the polarizing lenses. This dull, gloomy winter water reflection became……. well, here’s what I saw.

I decided, since this was my first large watercolor pencil study (9×12), I’d make scans at different stages. The first scan shows the initial sketch, right side is straight pencil, left side has been wet with a Niji waterbrush.The final scan for this post may be the final stage. I have to let it sit for a day or two and see if I want to play anymore. I used the Faber Castell pencils and the large Niji brush. I went thru a bit of water. 2 barrels on the first scan, but then water output slowed down. I think traditional watercolors may be easier. I think I would have had more control on the water ripples also. Let’s call this my impressionistic take 🙂