Hello everyone, I’m delighted to bring another blog post to you. I hope that you are all enjoying summer and are grateful to be alive! This month I’m sharing with you a painting that I recently completed from Noyo Harbor.

Noyo Harbor is typically known as the Fort Bragg harbor. But in researching for this blog post, I found this on Wikipedia: “The Noyo River post office operated from 1859 to 1860. The Noyo post office operated from 1872 to 1918. The city limits of Fort Bragg now come within a block of the edge of the bluff. The few houses outside the city limits and the commercial buildings near the Noyo river are still known as "Noyo." The headlands near the mouth of the river on the south side (and shore of the river on the north side) are now part of the Pomo Bluffs city park, opened on April 22, 2006.”

The part of that that I found interesting is that the harbor is actually considered as part of a “town” called Noyo. Well, you learn new things every day. I love history and think that’s pretty cool, that the history of the river and harbor is still maintained.

This month my blog was inspired by one of my favorite artists. I discovered this artist on YouTube quite a while ago. I’ve learned a lot from him and have enjoyed watching and rewatching his videos.

His name is Patrick Ley-Greaves. He’s got about 157 videos on YouTube. He is a watercolor artist who lives and works in the Cornwall area of England.

What I love most about his videos is his personality and approach to watercolor. Patrick is very humble and honest about his successes and failures in watercolor. As anyone knows who has ever tried watercolor, it is a very challenging medium. Patrick is not afraid to be real about his successes and failures.

I also love his teaching style. Patrick is easy to follow and gives great narratives while completing a painting for you from start to finish. He is very transparent regarding all aspects of his art, and he shares all his secrets with you. He also has a great website that is active and open to other artists and is instructive as well.

Here is a link to one of my favorite YouTube postings of his:

I adore his paintings of Cornwall. I have been lucky to have spent a lot of time around boats and harbors since my marriage to Vern. Some of our favorite memories have been on our boat, or that of one of his brothers’ boats, in places such as Canada, S.F. Bay, Humboldt Bay, around Woodley Island, to name a few.

I also was lucky enough to acquire one of Patrick Ley-Greaves’ paintings recently. He sells paintings on Ebay, and I was thrilled to be the winner of one of his auctions. It was this painting that was the inspiration for this month’s painting for this blog.

That brings us to the painting we’re here about today. I want to take you through a few steps in the creation of this painting.

I started by choosing my paper. I like to draw directly onto my watercolor paper. I know a lot of artists go through a few other steps before committing themselves to paper, but I enjoy working directly onto the paper. It saves time and I like to work while the iron’s hot, so to speak. I find that my interest in the subject can wane if I do multiple drawings of the work before committing myself.

I guess I am lucky in that I can see the drawing in my mind. I don’t find that my adjustments or changes to the drawing are enough to spoil the paper or that I need to rework the idea that much. That may lead to fewer successful paintings, but it makes the journey of art-making more enjoyable for me.

As most of you know who have read my blogs, I’ve been a bit of a watercolor paper snob; so I’ve decided to do some exploration into other quality papers to see if I find there to be a huge difference. Notice I say “quality papers,” because not all papers are made equal.

This month I choose Fabriano Artistico. I was confident choosing this paper because it is professional quality and 100 percent cotton. Here’s what the website says about their paper: “Fabriano Artistico watercolour paper is mould made, produced with 100% cotton, chlorine and acid free, guaranteeing long conservation and inalterability over time. The paper is sized both internally and externally, making it ideally absorbent and retaining its nature unaltered even if scratched. Traditional white, without optical bleaching, deckle-edged and watermarked.”

I am delighted to say that I really enjoyed the paper and didn’t find that much difference from Arches, which I normally use. I think the “tooth” of the paper was similar. I was using a 140 lb. cold-pressed white paper.

Also, I am using a 4B Faber-Castell pencil. I also like using 3B or 2b. The 4b is a softer lead, and I find it quite an expressive line, which I think adds to the composition naturally.

In this photo, I show you several of the items that I use next. As you can see, I’ve got a bottle there of colourless art masking fluid. I like the white version, because I have found that blue fluids can leave a residue that changes the color and actual surface of the paper. I also like to use the Winsor & Newton brand.

You’ll also notice there what is called a Fineline applicator. This little bottle and applicator were a wonderful discovery. With this applicator you can have more control over the application of the masking fluid and get those fine masts of the vessels without a struggle.

Then off we go! The next step is to tape the paper to your board. I like to work at quite an angle. I find that gravity is one of my best friends. It takes a little getting used to, but gravity is what made this beautiful sky possible.

Also, I find that just plain DIY masking tape from Ace is as good as any tapes for holding your paper down and also creating that nice white margin that sets off the painting. In this particular case, you can see I’ve used two different types of masking tape: artist and painter. The while tape is the artist tape. I found that it does not adhere to the board as well as the DIY tape, nor does it keep the water from seeping underneath. The painter grade is better, but still not as dependable. Good news: cheaper is better in this instance. LOL!

Why am I using the other types of masking tape here? Because they happened to be what I had at hand and I’m trying to use up what I have. I have had disappointing results with these two, however, so I will be returning to DIY tape as soon as possible.

My hope is that those tips were useful for you in your own watercolor journey. I wish you all the very best in your own creative journey. Thanks for leaving a comment below. You can just enter your name and click the guest button. You don’t have to sign in. Makes it all easier.

Also, if you know someone who would enjoy subscribing to this blog, please drop me a line at lanettemarierozell@sbcglobal.net or enter your info through this site or leave me a comment below. Thanks again to all my faithful friends who have encouraged me to continue sharing.