Monday 9 April 2012

Experimental Spring Washes

Experimental Texture Wash
Stage 1.
Primroses in Spring

Last week I held fantastic watercolour workshops that left me feeling inspired yet alone the artists who attended them. As always I was eager to try a few new ideas when I came back to my studio. This morning I took my lovable Bearded Collie, Bailey,for a walk in woodland nearby and was thrilled to see so many wild flowers in their natural setting there. It was only natural I should race back to my brushes to try to capture what I had seen.

In the morning light the  vibrant mixture of colour was radiant. There were the first of bluebells appearing which always seem more violet than blue to me. Then  huge masses of primroses and amongst the pale creamy clusters a few stray pink primroses had nestled adding to the scene. Dotted amongst them were tiny purple violets and alongside the collection,  white wood  anenome were swaying their heads in the breeze.

It was an artists dream to see!

Twigs and fallen leaves formed patterns as a backdrop so my aim in my first experimental wash was not to paint the flowers but instead aim to paint the collage of textural effects leaving  sections within my composition to add flowers at a later stage.

Everyone  who attended my workshops last week will now fully understand that I don't paint just the colours I see, so my primroses may be blue or purple in places!

I have also experimented with a gift that Christina, an artist on my workshops last week gave me to add texture to my results in this piece. If you are reading this Christina I discovered using my Bearded Collies fur in the same way gave me a far more interesting and unexpected result.

So I think I am going to call this new technique, " The Beardie" for now until I can come up with a more apt  title for it. 

Beardie hair is still in the wash!


Leaf edges formed with Bearded Collie fur in the top corner of my painting.

2 comments:

Lisa Graham said...

This is so interesting. The colors are perfect and I never knew you could add texture to watercolor. What a neat idea.

scott davidson said...

I pondered to myself recently what were the most important things in my life. The answer seems to be clear that art was up there in importance. Why? Frankly, I don't really know. May be someone here can enlighten me?
As was my wont when I have some free time, I browsed the marvelous site, Wahooart, where they keep thousands of digital images for customers to select to have printed into handsome canvas prints for their homes.
This image jumped out to jolt my reveries: Still life with bread, by the Cubist Georges Braque. Is art like this picture, as essential as bread and water, or should I say bread and wine?