Mounting a Watercolor Triptych on Cradled Art Boards

Wanna see how I make a watercolor triptych on cradled art boards? Watch the video below!

Each of these cradled art boards is 24"x18", making the finished size of the triptych painting 24"x54". These boards have a pre-primed paintable surface suitable for oils or acrylics, and a 1.5" deep cradled edge of clear wood that I stained and varnished a deep ebony color. After painting the triptych on 3 sheets of 24"x18" watercolor paper, I used acrylic gel medium to mount the paintings onto the boards. After the medium dried, I trimed the edges and sealed the painting using several coats of an archival, UV resistant, non-yellowing, acrylic varnish.
The result is a large watercolor triptych that can be hung and displayed without the use of frames, mats, or glass!

Here's how the finished painting looks, hanging on my studio wall!

Step by step painting progress

Long before I started the moving process, I had sketched out these dinghies and masked them in, but with workshops and commissions that needed to get done it got put aside for a long while. Then came the confusion of packing and moving, and I totally forgot all about it. When I unpacked it recently, I thought the drawing would be ruined because the masking fluild had been on it for about 10 or 11 months, but I went ahead and painted in the background water, and then grabbed my rubber pick up tool to remove the masking from the boats. Much to my surprise and delight, the mask pulled off easily, like it was just applied this morning! I can't sing the praises of Winsor & Newton masking fluid enough! After I painted in the water, I reapplied mask to the bows of the boats so I could paint in the backgrounds on the right.

This photo shows the base colors and values finished in this dinghy painting. After these are applied, I painted in the smaller details of the boats and the darkest values, and the motors. You can still see a little masking fluid left on in few places, like the whitest highlights, the posts on the dock, and some of the lettering and numbering on the boats. Those are the last things I paint.

I started this painting with masking fluid over the boats as I painted in the water and docks, then I peeled it off and re-masked just the details before I painted in the boats. I did the boats in mulptiple layers of color and value, using mostly cobalt blue, winsor violet, and rose madder. Then I painted thin glazes of yellow ochre over them, which warmed up the color temperture and also turned the color of the boats to a more grey hue. Finally, I glazed the boat closet to the viewer with a thin layer of burnt sienna, which warmed it up even more. The warm colors of the foreground and cool colors of the background objects adds to the perception of distance between that boats, and heightens the perspective of the overall painting.