Our spring has been a challenge in the San Diego area with the drought and last week's fires. We are thankful that we didn't need to evacuate. Some of our friends did but thankfully, they returned to their homes which were untouched by the fires.

I was the guest demonstrator for the San Diego Watercolor Society the night before the fires started. I shared my techniques with a enthusiastic crowd. I worked on this painting some more later in the week...

I started with a value drawing in my journal. I love to draw and it's important to me to develop a value and shape arrangement. this painting started with pencil lines and  a couple of Tombow pens. The pens are water soluble  and make lovely value changes as an underpainting. I used a dark blue pen which cooled off a major area of the shapes. 

The  photo was taken at my friend's casa. Donna Stewart served a beautiful luncheon on her outdoor metal table. This was the centerpiece....fruit from her garden on a glass plate. There were holes in the table top so I repeated some of them as a random pattern. There were great shadow patterns that ran across the surfaces....that added to the challenge!