Saturday 7 December 2013

Scabious


After having spent quite a lot of time on tight precise images.....the butterflies and my daughter's Christmas card (which I will show you in a later post)........ I had the urge to paint something bold and free. I have a bunch of artificial flowers in the conservatory which it has never occurred to me before to use as subject matter. I love the very dark blue in some of the flowers and decided they were worth a go. Sorry....the photo does not do them justice!



The point of this exercise was to loosen up, so I decided that there would be no drawing at all in this painting.Nor was I concerned about producing a recognisable type of flower.


I simply wet the paper and dropped colour onto the sheet where I thought the flowers might be, adding greens below to suggest the stems and leaf positions


Without any drawing I began to do the flowers, working around the central area of each, which I had blotted out with a bit of tissue, whilst the wash was still damp.


I am a little disappointed with the flower on the lower right edge, but as a quick and spontaneous exercise, I am quite pleased with it. I might not have posted it except for one part of the painting which I really love and I thought you might like to know how I achieved it, if you haven't happened on it by accident already.


I really love the way the paint has travelled across the paper in little zig-zaggy lines almost as if the paint is granulating. At first I was not sure what I had done. Then I realised that I had wet the paper by spraying the surface. Hence, the paper was covered in tiny droplets of water and the paint ran through the drops but failed to cover the dry areas. What a lovely textural passage....I will definitely use that trick again.

22 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you Polly. Its lovely when something unexpected happens!

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  2. The painting magician is still giving away her secrets. Thank you Yvonne, a lovely affect achieved.

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    1. Thanks Ray. I really enjoy sharing with others. Its how I learnt so much myself. Glad you enjoy looking.

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  3. Lovely painting, and such a great way of working too. I love it when the paint is allowed to do unexpected things - it delivers such brilliant surprises sometimes.

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    1. Thanks for the comment Vandy. How right you are, watercolour has the power to surprise us, but beginners beware....it doesn't always do what you expect!!

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  4. Very striking, colourful and loose!!!

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    1. Thanks Peter. Looseness was the point, but I still think its a tad tight. The fear of painting without a drawing can be quite powerful.

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  5. This one is pretty and fresh. I just love those happy accidents in watercolour.

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    1. Thanks Laura. Yes, isn't watercolour exciting. I love all of the effects you get when you least expect them.

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  6. Lovely . Can you please also explain about how you created the wonderful background of your painting "Delphiniums 3".
    A big thank you for your efforts, your blog is one of my favourite and your florals are wonderful !

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    1. Thanks for the comment Shreya. I would love to help, but you need to send me the date of the Delphinium post you are referring to, as I cannot find it. Are you referring to the 'Differences in Approach: Delphiniums'. If so let me know which of the paintings you need more info on. Glad you really like the blog and delighted that you enjoy my paintings.

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    2. Ma'am the painting is posted by you on 01 April 2011 Creative Thinking ,one of the four paintings in the group as Delphiniums. The background has wonderful texture , can you please explain its secret.
      Regards.

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    3. P.S. do you always use rough paper

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    4. Hi Shreya. Thanks for the enquiry. I have sent you a longer reply, but for any other interested parties, it is just pigment dropped onto wet paper and then textured with sea salt and granulating fluid. I use both Not and Rough paper.

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    5. Thank you so much for sharing your technique.I am just a beginner doing WC for the first time and your blog is very helpful.

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  7. Welcome Corn Dena, and thanks for the lovely comment. I hope you continue to enjoy the posts.

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  8. Beautiful colours and effects. The section showing the one flower would make a fab picture all of its own. Lovely painting.

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  9. Thanks Jan. What a good idea...I will give it some thought.

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