Door County Wisconsin Lighthouse
Several years ago, we took a family vacation and visited Sturgeon Bay in Door
County Wisconsin. From Sturgeon Bay, we went east on Canal Road till it ends at
this lighthouse, Sturgeon Bay Canal Station. You can see the canal to the left
of the lighthouse.
Since Rita does the majority of her painting in her studio, she uses photographs
as reference material. This photograph was taken from the northern pier:
Door County Wisconsin Lighthouse
Here's the initial sketch of the scene as Rita has visualized it. Please note
that she has taken some artistic liberty with the original photograph (Where did
that sailboat come from? She has taken other artistic liberties. Can you find
them?).
Rita lightly sketched the lighthouse scene on a quarter sheet of watercolor
paper (11X15 inches). (I attempted to photograph this, but it was so light that
you could not easily see it on the web). Next, Rita began mixing colors to
create a custom color palette for this painting. Mentally she begins to plan
the sequence for applying the paint to the paper. Once she has that done,
she is ready to start painting. And that concludes her planning process.
In this pic, you can see that Rita has added color to the sky, the water and
the trees. Notice that she will not finish painting the reflections in the water
until the background painting is completed. If you have any questions, please
send Rita an email.
In this pic, you can see that Rita has finished the trees and their reflection
in the water. If you compare the first two pictures, can you see how the trees
are brighter and more colorful? Rita has continued to build them up with a variety
of colors. Now the trees almost pop with color. Also, note that she has now
added the reflection of the sky in the water as well.
Rita has completed her first pass of the painting. She will continue to do some
fine tuning. We will post the final pic next week. As you can see, she has
completed the buildings, the grass and the rocks. She also added some additional
color to the trees. And what has been painted on the shore, she has also added
the corresponding reflection in the water.
It's done!!!! Here's the final pic. As you can see, Rita has added some additional
trees and branch detail on existing trees. And yes, the trees were painted first
with the water reflections painted afterwards. And it has been signed.