Watercolor Painting; New Landscape Painting

Hello Everyone;
I hope everyone had a safe and joyous Holiday season.  As for me, it was wonderful.  Time with family and pretty decent weather considering I live in the western burbs of Chicago.  Even though the winter thus far has been pretty tolerable, once Christmas is over, I look to the spring time.  Warm temperatures and green grass.  Today, I put in a Jimmy Buffet cd and painted this spring time scene.  I used the Ampersand Aquabord I mentioned in my last post.  As I stated before, it is considered a cold press surface, but the paint reacts completely different then with paper.  I do love the way the colors pop out as opposed to paper.  Remember, when painting in watercolors on paper, the paint will lighten up approx 50% when it dries.  With the aquabord, that does not happen.  One difference in applying your paint is to use more paint then water.  I realize that goes against using watercolors to begin with, but the paint lifts very easily on this surface.  If you are used to layering colors, be very careful you don't disturb the underneath layers.

Right now, I am seriously considering using the aquabord exclusively for my paintings going forward.  I really like the results, but I need to still work out a few kinks.  My plan is to use the 1 1/2" cradle the aquabord comes in.  When a customer buys a painting on the aquabord with that cradle, they can hang it up as is.  No need for a frame, glass or matting.  The cradle would really save my customers a decent amount of money and best yet, it is a clean look on the wall.  Like I said, I still need to work some things out before I make the switch, but that is most definitely the plan.  If you have never tried this support, give it a whirl.  Blick has a 3 pack of 5" X 7" 1/8" panels for under $7.00.  Practice on it, use a wet rag to remove the paint and start over again.  You can almost go to complete white again so your investment will go a long way.  Let me know how you like it.