This painting came about, again, from my Saturday Morning Painting Group. Last December we went to Descanso Gardens to paint together, thinking perhaps we would paint the Christmas decor that they tend to put up around the gardens at that time of year. We didn’t realize that a week or two before the great windstorm had happened and Descanso had been closed because there was so much damage.
Consequently, there was not much in the way of Christmas decor to paint, but we did all settle in to paint the Japanese Tea House in their small Japanese garden. I found this scene to be challenging because of the multiple colors of green, to represent all of the different trees, bamboo, etc. that surrounds the teahouse. In my opinion, realistic greens are the hardest to capture in watercolor painting. Much more so when you are using a rinky dinky travel watercolor kit with very limited color options. But — on the whole — not too bad. This en plein air painting is tough, but I think that I get a little bit better every time I do it.
