Vacation Paintings

A few weeks ago we went on vacation to a place that has some cabins in the mountains. It was really refreshing to get away from the city for a bit and take walks in the woods, read in the hammocks, and sit out on the porch at night looking at all the stars.

I loved walking around on the paths and looking at all the different types of flowers. There were bright red poppies as well as a bunch of other ones I don't know the names of. Pink-ish purple ones, blue-violet ones, bright pink ones, yellow ones, white ones... the fields were full of beautiful flowers. And then there were the mountains themselves, more green in one place than I had seen in a while.

I brought along my watercolors, and I would walk around until I found something I wanted to paint. The first two subjects I painted were these two flowers.

I first sketched them out with pencil, and then I started painting them in.

This one was a bit difficult to get the shading on the petals right so that they would stand out and have the right depth. The texture on some of the petals was also very interesting and intricate.

Here are the two completed flowers.

There were also lots of animals that we saw there, like squirrels, lizards, chickens, and horses. That was the first time I had seen a squirrel in Turkey! The chickens were in this red roofed coop that was along the side of a path and tucked between the trees. I knew it would be a challenge to paint the mountains behind it and try to differentiate all those greens to keep it interesting, but I went for it.

I began with a sketch as always, and I began the painting with the chicken coop. Then I started on the mountains in the background, and then the trees in the mid-ground by the chicken coop. After that I painted the fields and the path in the foreground, and lastly the trees at the very front. I varied the greens by having some different greens, blue-greens, and yellow-greens, as well as darker and lighter greens. Having some different textures also helped.

Here is the completed chicken coop.

I really enjoyed just sitting outside and painting the nature I saw in front of me. It gave me a chance to study the flowers up close and challenge myself with using a lot of one color. If I had more time, I would've painted even more flowers as there were so many beautiful ones to choose from. Instead, here are some photos of the interesting plants and animals I saw.

Of course, you can't forget the cow crossing the road as we left!