Smoke texture as an Inkscape pattern fill

The JPEG source from which this pattern-fill is constructed is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27668445@N03/3191145019/, by lostandtaken.
The photo comes from Caleb Kimbrough who produced a set of "Four Silky Smooth Smoke Textures" and made them available on his textures blog.

Standing Still

Watercolor-style painting of a river gorge

Inkscape and the Gimp were both used to achieve this watercolor-style painting of a river gorge.

A river in the mountains of the West

This painting is an attempt to simulate a watercolor style using Inkscape.

The effects are achieved using many small and blended gradients.