Helen Windmill
Posted by Judy Moore Mudd | Filed under Buildings, Landscapes
About the Painting:
Name: Helen Windmill -Mini Painting
Medium: Watercolor on 140# Arches
Size: 5×7′
I have visited Helen, GA a few of times. It is a wonderful Alpine village-style art and craft community in the northern Georgia mountains. This windmill sits nestled on the mountainside. It is actually a motel in Helen (Heidi Motel). It looks as if it has been there for years. If anyone knows about this motel, I’d love to learn more about it.
My Painting Process: When I designed the painting, I removed a lot of what was visible in the photograph. I wanted the windmill to be the focus, so eliminated most of the surrounding structures. Other than that, it is pretty much how it sits in the mountains. It was fall when I last visited and took this photo. I wanted to capture some of the fall folliage in the painting because I thought they would go with the colors in the windmill.
I started with the background and wet the paper with clear water from the sloping hillside up. I dropped in greens, blues, yellows and oranges for the trees; cerulean blue, cobalt blue and touches of alizarin crimson for the clouds and sky. Once that was dry, I painted the folliage colors between the windmill slats, added the roof tops and painted those colors in the windmill slats where appropriate. I didn’t paint all of the slats equally or solidly, not wanting a “pasted on” look. I added the shadows in the windows and under the eaves, using the same blue-purple mixes I used in the sky. I loosely painted, dabbed, and splattered the rocky slope in the foreground. Once I was satisfied generally with the way things looked, I put in the darker evergreens around the windmill to make it pop, finishing off the painting with the blue-purple shadows under the brush.
For Purchase Information, Click Here!
