Adjustments!

After Christmas we returned to the horse stables in Altadena.  It's such a wonderful setting for painting, I did a watercolor on my previous visit, Old Horse Trailer.  I love the old red barn and stable buildings, the fences, the huge cacti, and the trees.  

Unfortunately it was very cold and at one point my fingers and feet felt like it was time to go.  That was fine since my watercolor wasn't going as planned.  It just wasn't turning out as I had envisioned when I chose my view.  Looking at it again at home, it really needed something...like a horse.  While we were at the stables, they let four very frisky young horses out to exercise in the main ring.  They had a great time running around with each other.  I decided to crop my 8"x10" watercolor down to 7"x5" and use gouache to make some adjustments.  I hoped it would go more in the direction I had in mind.  I also added one of the horses.  Putting the opaque gouache over parts of my transparent watercolor is something I hadn't tried before but I'm much happier with the piece now.  

7" x 5" Watercolor and Gouache