Breezy Spring Morning

Here’s another scene from Bielefeld, Germany, where I lived from 2010-2012. This pleasant street was right around the corner from our temporary digs during the second year of our stay. It was a lovely neighborhood not far from the Altstadt (the historic downtown).

Available through Galerie Drentsche Aa

A note about materials:

The sky is just as blue here today as it was on the day that inspired this painting. How do you paint such an intense blue sky in watercolor? In this case, I’ve used gouache: ultramarine blue mixed with zinc white. Why gouache? Simply because it allows you to get that intense color without going too dark.
This probably wouldn’t work as well when you have a large sky area, where the luminosity of watercolor wins out over intensity of color, but when there are just a few bits of sky peeking through the foliage such as here, I think gouache packs a punch.