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Summer

If I could bottle the soft fragrance of the lilies,

If I could bottle the light setting fire to that maroon one and its pink neighbor,

Spinning the tall ivory blossoms into angels wings;

If I could bottle the same light as it blinds on the water,

Tips the tops of the firs with gold,

Runs a long finger down the trunks and dances across the green moss floor;

Along with the light, if I could bottle the merry chatter of nuthatches,

goldfinches, crossbills

and add to them the soft warm wind,  ………

Dream Abandoned

You have probably been told to do value sketches by one instructor or another. But do you THINK values when you are planning your watercolor?  Or are you more interested in “what” you are painting? I claim that the shapes of the values are different from the shapes of the things. It is the shapes of the values, not the things themselves, that are a make-or-break in creating a sucessful painting.