First Color by Nita Engle

 

"Painting moving water with watercolor is, of course, a natural. I try to make the paint and water move down the paper the way it actually moves in real life. I paint the rock ledges and then allow the water and paint to spill over them, making a waterfall - difficult to describe in words, but it works! It is very exciting to paint this way because the painter never knows what will happen next.

 

"This waterfall was painted using these methods in early September in the North Woods. This is the beginning of the season of great color contrasts. Somehow sky and water seem more intensely blue when the foliage is blazing with reds and golds. No subtlety here - just high key contrast, more in hue than in value. This contrast of deep, cold blue and all of the hot colors has always fascinated me, and that is really what this painting is about." - Nita Engle.

 

Print released 1989