Artwork #3

Tue Oct 07, 2025

Art, watercolor, painting, landscape

It's been a minute since I've posted about painting, so here are some paintings from the second half of the year.

This has become more therapeutic for me. I'm still finding my style and I'm settling on a technique I like. I've committed to small(ish) paintings so there isn't as much pressure to "do it right." I've also stopped painting on the backs of pages because my wife has asked me not to so she can cut some out from time to time.

In June, we went to visit some friends in Minnesota. They live right on the Mississippi River headwaters, so I took some time to paint while we were there.

A river landscape painting. Tall grass lines the right side of the frame. Trees are on the left.

A small, loose painting of a river receding into the distance. Tall grass is hinted on the right, trees hinted on the left.

I made some smaller, looser versions while we were there as well.

The time we spent in Minnesota kicked off our summer. You can read more about it in its own post.

I didn't do much in July, but in August, I went back to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for a camping trip and I took my paints along.

A landscape watercolor. A small island with evergreen trees is in the foreground. More trees are on a distant shore in the background.

A landscape watercolor. A small island is in the foreground. Distant trees are hinted in the background.

A landscape watercolor. A large lake with evergreen trees in the distance.

I think my favorite from the trip was this painting of some birch trees near a campsite. Most of what I'd done so far on the trip was flat and hard-edged. I managed to get some nice blending on the background for these birches which makes it feel a little more vibrant.

Three birch trees on a vibrant yellow-green background.

September and October have been small landscapes in the evenings. Some are from home, others are from reference photos.

A small landscape watercolor of a pasture with cows grazing on a hill.

Two small watercolor landscapes. The left side is sunlit with a fence and grassy field in the foreground. A line of trees is visible in the middle and background. The right side is a foggy morning. A cool field runs to some trees shourded in mist.

Two small watercolor landscapes. The left is a green field with trees in the middle ground in front of distant hills. The bright sun casts long shadows from left to right. The right side is a bright field with yellow flowers starkly contrasted against a green foreground and trees in the distance.

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