Monday, October 29, 2012

The Virtual Paintout - Croatia!

The Virtual Paintout for October 2012 was in Croatia!  Bill Guffey created The Virtual Paintout and assigns the monthly location for our paintings.  This was my third time to participate.  Artists must use Google Street View to look around the specified city or country to find their images to draw or paint.  The URL of the street view must be submitted to Bill along with our artwork.

I really loved the variety of gorgeous scenery in Croatia.  It looks like a beautiful place for a real life visit.  I had to report for jury duty on October 1 which always entails a lot of waiting.  I was happy to see that the computers in the juror's room could get Google Street View!  Since I had a lot of time to wait, I took the opportunity to "look" around Dubrovnik, where there are some beautiful, sheltered marinas.  I felt like trying another piece with water and found several possibilities for painting reference.  Master watercolorist Joseph Zbukvic grew up in Croatia in a farming area and mentioned in one of his DVDs that he still loves those scenes.  For my second piece I looked around rural areas outside of Zagreb for a farm or rustic buildings, hoping for the same inspiration.  It turns out that there are hundreds and hundreds of farms and ranches there.  When the end of the month nears I have to make a decision on what to paint!  

For these two pieces I wanted to try using gouache, opaque watercolor.  I really had fun using it for landscapes.  These are both about 5"x7".    


11 comments:

  1. Lovely paintings, particularly like the first. We went to Croatia as part of a cruise we did last year and you are right the scenery is absolutely stunning. Dubrovnic is a beautiful city and so clean well worth a visit!!

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    1. Thanks, Judith! Nice that area isn't toooo far from you. I would love to see it.

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  2. All right, along with the greens I like your blues too :) Very beautiful both of them Sherry!! The way you painted water, the reflections and the lighting is wonderful!
    Warm regards.

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    1. Ha, you are so sweet Konstantina! I'm still practicing all I can on painting water. :-)

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  3. Having had the good fortune to visit Croatia in 08, I can attest to the beautiful colors and landscape that you have so expertly captured here, Sherry. Both are exciting and atmospheric.

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    1. Thanks for such nice comments Terry! I'll probably never get to Croatia...

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  4. Particularly great lead in on the water piece and the blue is lovely!

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    1. Hi Mary! Thank you for checking out my blog, and your wonderful comments!

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