"Street in Solola", 23.5" X 14" watercolor

We drove through Sololá, Guatemala on the way to Chichicastenango from Lake Atitlan.  Unlike many of the men in the central highlands of Guatemala, the men in Sololá tend to wear their indigenous clothes.  Their black and white jackets include a design that represents a bat-– the symbol of the last Cackchiquel dynasty. They also wear striped trousers with black wool over the pants, a waistband, an apron and tzute, a black felt or straw hat, and leather sandals.  You can see the man in the foreground follows these traditions.

Street in Sololá by April M. Rimpo

The women wear the traditional Huipil (pronounced wee-peel), which is the Spanish word for the traditional blouses. In Sololá the Huipil has red stripes rather than flower designs found in other parts of Guatemala.  Their skirts are a dark-blue with embroidered stripes of many colors.

As always the colors of the town as well as their traditions called to me to share.  Street in Sololá is my homage to this town.

This painting received the 2nd Place Award in a Baltimore Watercolor Society exhibit.

Street in Sololá

watercolor

23.5" X 14" image

31" x 20" brushed silver frame

Learn more on my website

Copyright April M Rimpo, All Rights Reserved.   You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

"Woman with a Wrapped Hat"

Woman with a Wrapped Hat,  20.5" X 28" watercolor by April M. Rimpo

Woman with a Wrapped Hat

watercolor, varnished, mounted and framed

20.5" X 28"

Available on my website

"Woman with a Wrapped Hat" was selected by Paul Jackson for inclusion in the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society's 33rd Juried Exhibition in 2012 ; was selected by judge Ratindra Das as recipient of the Excellence in Figurative award in The 29th National Exhibition 2013 of the Illinois Watercolor Society; and received the First Place award in the 45th Laurel Art Guild Juried Open. Thanks go to Lee Boynton who was the juror for the Laurel Art Guild exhibit. Below is a description of my inspiration and little about my painting process.

This woman from Santiago, Guatemala was rewrapping her hat which is made of a long belt about 15 feet in length.  This is a traditional hat in Santiago village, on Lake Atitlan.  She smiled for the camera then asked for a small payment, which I happily provided.  That smile and the colors in the hat cried out for me to paint them.  I wanted to emphasize the orange red color and use it throughout the painting as an integrating design element. As a result I decided to use a complementary color scheme primarily blue and orange with smaller hints of green. 

I love having very wet runs and drips in my paintings, since they are so specific to watercolor paintings.  In contrast to these passages are the hard edges I used in her face.  I added horizontal and vertical stripes which also contrast with the organic runs and the diagonal shapes formed by the woman's arms.

I start most of my paintings of people by doing an initial drawing on tracing paper.  When drawing people I frequently shade portions of the face to ensure the contour lines are properly placed.  I frequently make adjustment to the drawing as a result.  I then use a fine tipped marker to emphasize the contour lines that I will then transfer to the watercolor paper.  This photo is of the tracing paper drawing, which I hang in my studio for reference while I paint.  Although I always hang these up, I almost never refer to them, but like knowing they are there in case I need them. 

The other photo below (right) shows a color grid I use to select which pigments to combine to get the desired flesh color.  A long time ago I created this flesh color grid.  The grid shows mixtures of different reds with a set of different greens.  Each combination was about a 50/50 blend of the red and green.

To see available prints check my store.

 

Drawing on Tracing Paper by April M. Rimpo

Flesh color chart

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

A Favorite Color Scheme demonstrated in "His Dugout"

His Dugout, 32.5" X 23.5", fluid acrylic
and watercolor, by April M. Rimpo

His Dugout

acrylic & watercolor on paper

32.5" X 23.5" image

39" X 31" silver brush frame

 

One of my favorite color schemes is a triad that uses primarily blue and orange with smaller hints of green.

Source: www.colorschemedesigner.com

I use www.colorschemedesigner.com to preview the triad and zero-in on the shade of blue and orange that I want to use.  Often the next step in my process is to use Adobe Photoshop to vary the colors in my reference photo(s) to try out my plan.  The Photoshop version never looks quite like the final painting, but gets me close enough to know whether I want to go forward. 

His Dugout is an abstract, representational painting that shows a Guatemalan man beside his dugout.  He was getting ready to repair the dugout using a molten, tar-like substance in his wooden boat.  As I mentioned in my blog post on Basket Maker, few of the Guatemalan men wear traditional clothing, but many of them build and use these dugout boats.  I'm sure I'll paint examples of these boats in the future.

His Dugout received an Honorable Mention Award at The Pennsylvania Watercolor Society's 34th Annual International Juried Exhibition. Many thanks to Pat Dews for selecting this painting for the exhibit and to Frank Webb for granting this award.  

Click the link at right to hear me discuss this painting. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jht7P1m60bI 

Like many of my paintings I used a combination of fluid acrylic and watercolor in His Dugout.  Only two acrylic colors were used: Da Vinci Leaf Green 945A and Da Vinci Cerulean Blue (Hue) 921A. I wanted the bright intensity I could get with acrylic for these light valued colors. The balance of the painting was done in watercolor. Below are three photos:

1. A picture of my source photograph before I manipulated it to push it to my desired color scheme.
2. An initial work in progress (WIP) after lying in the first blues and establishing some of the darkest values.
3. A later WIP photo after many of the orange hues had been added.

        

Below are some of my other paintings in which I used a similar blue/orange triad color scheme

             

Taking a Break

Woman with a Wrapped Hat

The Vendor

Related post on combining fluid acrylic and watercolor 

To see available prints check my store.