When visiting Fort Worth, Texas, I highly recommend visiting the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. They are beautiful and peaceful, with a waterfall, lots of plants (obviously, considering the name), bridges, and more. They also have koi and other wildlife. If your chosen family also includes a big sister and niece and nephew in the area, so much the better!
 |
| Fort Worth Steven Sauke Acrylic and gel on canvas 2012 |
Our second assignment in our painting class in 2012 was to paint a small portion of a picture. I selected the below picture that I took in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens in 2007 as the inspiration for this painting. I mixed matte gel with the paint to make the bushes more bushy, and mixed gloss gel with the paint to give the water more of a sheen. I was especially proud of the textures in this painting. Having just painted Mt. Rainier in Monet's style, this painting was also partially inspired by his bridge paintings—but I didn't paint his bridge because I didn't want to appear to be duplicating his artwork.
 |
| Said big sister, nephew and niece Also at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens (different bridge) Picture taken in 2007, so they are now a bit older How is that 16 years ago?! |
