When I feel the urge to try something different in my painting, this is an example. I took this photograph of a declining cypress tree at a place called Jughandle State Park in California. For some strange reason I wanted to try doing a watercolor using yopo paper, because I had heard the name yopo before. (My uncle served in the army with an alleged Samoan Prince named Yopo… whom I met as a small kid). So I painted trying out the Yopo paper, which is a slick shiney paper, the watercolors are not absorbed like in most watercolor papers, so painting on yopo required a different approach, like nothing else I ever painted on before. I may have to try doing a watercolor on yopo paper again.

For some reason the painting came out as an oval, actually it is full sheet matted and framed, but I find it a real challenge just to take a photo through glass. I will attempt one more time to take another photo of Jughandle. Painting the cypress tree was interesting…I could not capture the water in the background as I wanted, but over all I am pleased.