Painting of the Day

"St. John's Episcopal Church, Snohomish" 9" x 12" gouache
in a Stillman & Birn Beta journal Copyright, Sara Light-Waller, 2015

This painting is of a local church, St. John's Episcopal. I drive by it all the time and thought it was high time I painted it.

This painting gave me an excuse to try out some super short-handled travel brushes I bought over the winter - the Jack Richardson Plein Air Travel Brush Set. This set has seven synthetic brushes, packaged in a small stand-up travel wallet, making them really handy for taking out plein air painting. I was a little concerned about the length of the handles, which are half the length of "normal" watercolor bushes. But after giving them a thorough test in this painting, I'm happy to say that they worked out fine. The synthetic bristles were durable, made a good line, held color and water well. Thumbs up all around for the travel brushes! They'll now get a permanent spot in my plein air kit.

I only used five gouache colors for this painting - Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red, Cerulean Blue, Phthalo Blue, and permanent white. This seemed enough for the subject.

I was looking back at my first gouache sketch, done eight months ago, and was noting how much I've learned since. It was a nice seeing the progress, it made me grateful for the opportunity to continue learning.