Friendly Flames on Hardboard Panel

Painting every day--or trying to--has it's advantages. It feels easier to take advantage of happy accidents, try new things, or go with a different format. For this painting, I spread a paste called "absorbent ground" on a 9" x 9" hardboard panel. Once it's dry, it accepts watercolor almost like paper would. The paint doesn't spread the same way or soak in, but it doesn't bead-up and slide off either. It's like painting on chalk...it's soft. This is a scene from a prescribed burn in Ponderosa pine in the southwestern US where a low-intensity fire is often called "friendly flame" due to the fact that this is the type of fire that keeps these dry pine ecosystems healthy. These fires remove dead and down material from the forest floor, remove the abundance of small seedlings that otherwise crowd the forest with doghair thickets, and promote bunch grasses. Trees like ponderosas have thick bark and most large trees survive the friendly flames just fine.