Edge of the Waterfall

I'm finding that those times that I allow the paint to do the work, when I'm open to suggestion from the painting as it develops, I'm often happier with the outcome. This watercolor painting started from simply floating some colors on to the wet paper and letting them do some mingling. I tilted the paper a little to start the action, then watched what happened.
Actually, I applied the paint thinking the painting would be upside down from what I used! After the paper dried and sat for a day or two to "cook", I came back to it and started turning it around, seeing what suggested itself. As it came into this position I could see water coming down and the suggestion of rocks. Then I just started working with the shapes, adding definition. Soon I noticed that there was a falling off at the bottom....I played that up and the waterfall started to appear. Yes, water and rocks are two of my favorite subjects.

The Glacier's Gift to the Prairie

The painting that is at the top of the blog is one that I made based upon photographs taken at Curtis Prairie at the University of Wisconsin Arboretum in Madison, Wisconsin. Curtis Prairie is one of the few original tall grass prairies left in the state. By that, I mean that is was never plowed under, farmed or developed in any way. We are fortunate to have many new prairie restorations to further expand our natural tall grass prairies in the state.
I call this painting "The Glacier's Gift to the Prairie." Another feature in Wisconsin are the beautiful glacial boulders that the glaciers brought down from Canada and dumped in our state.
Many homes have lovely rock walls in gardens made of these boulders. We have a couple of those in our home gardens. This particular rock wall is along the edge of the prairie at the visitor center.
I painted it in pastel on Wallis sanded pastel paper. I was attracted to the light and shadow patterns on the rocks and the interaction with the native grasses.