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| Winter Bouquet, Watercolor, 7" x 7" |
Always reluctant to trash an abomination, I always have to see what will happen if I do this and that. Sometimes puttering around works. Sometimes the abomination gets more abominable. Did I save it? You decide. If thumbs down is the consensus, I did come away with a technique that pleases me: drawing into the nearly wet background with the loaded tip of my brush handle. That comes from my work with acrylics and oils, the thicker mediums which allow impasto. If carefully dipped, the line doesn't violate the flat rule of watercolor. I also cropped the 7 x 11 initial effort and ran it under the faucet before drawing into it and strengthening what needed strengthening.
Happy belated birthday Linda! Good luck with Etsy! I am trying to catch up on my blog visitations so I will check your Etsy site soon!
ReplyDeleteI love this Abomination! I think you saved it! Your work always excites! The colors explode and demand attention! I also love to read about you and how you are attacking the world of art! I like, love, your attitude Linda! You seem to live life to the fullest! You savor every second and realize the importance of time! Bravo to you my dear friend! Thank you also for your recent comments on my blog. They really helped. Now, because of you our other wonderful art buddies I am off to paint and post something! Enjoy the day Linda! Your "Out On A Limb" blog art loving art buddy! Michael
We are lucky people to have art in our blood. Through all life's ups and downs, we have an outlet, a constant failsafe that brings us through and buoys us up. We really have been gifted.
DeleteThank you for your kind words and birthday wishes. I look forward to where you're painting will take you next.
This works for me.
ReplyDeleteI like what you have accomplished.
One question: Do you mean handle or bristles?
Handle, or a stick, doesn't matter. I felt the need for delineation. I feel out of water with watercolor. I don't think the medium fits my personality, yet it does offer spontaneity, so I keep trying to make it work. Water solvable markers plus watercolor might be something to return to? The flowers, a happy subject matter, look gloomy--probably the week I spent on computer trying to navigate the Etsy shop website? I'm done with that. Let it ride.
DeleteI hate it too when it doesn't work for me! I just scrapped off a bunch of paintings and gessoed over them in order to reuse them. I also recently culled some of my smaller paintings and reassigned them to the trash. Its a kind of renewal and a chance to do better. In your case, the wetting, softening and drawing with the brush handle worked amazingly well. I like the result as it has new found depth and greater nuance of color.
ReplyDeleteFailures offer a chance to play without worries of ruining anything. Nothing is precious. Have fun. My philosophy is I was going to trash it anyway, why not do it big time--and perhaps learn something from the process. The colors here are not as rich as the original. Violets throw the digital camera off making them look either too blue or a drab gray. Tough to balance properly in the computer. I did have a good time; my iN
Deleteintuition took over.
I do that too, playing with paintings I am not happy about, and see what I can experiment. They end up in the bin in the end, but I learned something and had fun.
ReplyDeleteI think the ones we mess up and then play with, are the most helpful. The ones that go along perfectly, make me a bit nervous. I worry too much that I will mess them up with the next stroke! I often stick my acrylics under the faucet to washout a session that I think went poorly. Like with this watercolor, some of the paint does wash away, while a lot of it doesn't. Some of the values go dull, while some maintain their strength. The result is often much more interesting. In the warmer months, I shoot the larger acrylics with a hose with the nozzle set to power wash. The
Deleteresults are always interesting.
I think the painting has a rich and vibrant feel to it. I enjoyed seeing the drawing marks
ReplyDeletein some areas.
What If it was a dud anyway? You learned, explored, had fun and what a lucky person you are for being able to do all of that.
You are an adventurer, Linda, and it is always great to visit your blog and see what you are up to.. as you said ...lucky to be an artist.
I see here the way you paint, beyond the medium used.
ReplyDeleteYour expressive power,
your creative process that develops in the same way (big, small it makes no difference).
Not for every person who paints is always immediately understand his own work, For some painters it takes time to get to a serene evaluation of themselves.
Have a great week and let your beautiful watercolors have time to talk with you!