This afternoon my friend and I sat on the shore of Lake Washington (around the UW Urban Horticultural Center trails) and painted. We watched turtles ease themselves on and off logs, a blue heron fishing, king fishers flying by and scolding us with their chit-chit-chit cry, an osprey soar, and mallard ducks rummaging in tall grasses. I completed three ~12″ x 9″ watercolor sketches of the view with the goal in mind of working wet-on-wet, using gestural marks, and experimenting with my palette. The studies are also on a new paper for me: Fabriano Academia, an inexpensive (compared to Arches!) paper that handles one or two watercolor washes well. I plan to use it for experiments and studies. I’m happy with my sketches- each one has an element that I feel is more successful than the others. Tomorrow I may do one more version in my studio and incorporate everything I like into one painting.