One of the projects for my watercolor class was to paint something for a holiday card. Usually I look for images of snow scenes, but this time I didn't find any that inspired me so I used a photo from our September trip to Mammoth of some aspen leaves. I just got up close to the leaves fluttering in the wind and luckily it came out pretty good. I also used the photo for the cover of a calendar that Maureen and I put together every year. I like my painting, but I think I like the photo better. I didn't end up using the painting for a card. Maureen found lots of unused cards from past years and used those rather than having another one printed.
Ron, my painting class teacher, likes to do lots of scenes with colorful trees this time of year. This class project was based on a photo of a river. Ron's demonstration painting emphasized the trees over the water, but I liked the river and tried to show more of the reflections in it. I didn't quite get what I wanted, but it was a good try.
Our fall color paintings nearly always include one with lots of white trunks of aspens or birches. For this one I again deviated from Ron's demo by emphasizing the bright yellow leaves instead of filling the space with reds and oranges. I didn't think much of this painting as I was working on it, but now that it is done, I think it is pretty good.
