It must be the unseasonably warm winter weather that got me thinking about summer and prompted me to work up this small study of a father and son canoeing on the Potomac. 

My parents were very generous in gifting me the small set of Schmincke watercolors shown below and some Da Vinci Maestro travel brushes, which are phenomenal.   

I love the Schmincke paints and the smart color selection in the kit. Because there was some space, I added some titanium white, cerulean blue (which granulates nicely with yellow ochre), brown madder to work up a great range of greys with Prussian blue, and indigo. I intend to use this kit for small quick color and value studies. The colors the set came with are very efficient and allow for good range and good tonal painting with some pop. This is what the set came with:   

For the painting above I used yellow ochre, sepia, permanent green olive, and Prussian blue, with accents of white and cadmium red light.

I have been watching Tom Keating on Painters on YouTube–someone recently posted season 2, which focuses on the Impressionists. This got me rethinking my painting approach a little, or maybe confirmed the direction I have been going in. Hopefully my own style is developing. More to come on this.

Thanks for reading.