Apple Picking, detail

In the summer of 1878, as he painted Apple Picking (figure b), Homer followed traditional opaque watercolor technique in order to record two girls pausing in a sunlit orchard. To achieve both brightness and opacity, he used zinc white watercolor throughout, mixing it with and layering it under transparent watercolor. For example, he scumbled blue, pale green, and pink watercolors, each mixed with white, across darker preliminary washes to give the effect of light …