FRENCHMAN WITH SHAPE, COLOR AND TEXTURE!

Today I sat at the Gallery. I was expecting to be alone so I was surprised to find the committee for CWA Annual Exhibit working in the kitchen, preparing the letters of acceptance and rejection to be sent out. I was treated to a slide show of the accepted entries which was playing on a laptop. I hope they make a cd available for purchase of these paintings.

Knowing I would have all afternoon to paint, last night I prepared a half sheet of watercolor paper with different textures in the heavy Utrech gesso. I had been experimenting with other acrylic mediums and was surprised that after they dried, if they were rewetted, some of them started to soften and dissolve. Gesso seems to stay hard once it dries. I used different stamps and stencils from my ever-growing supply. Once at the Gallery, I drew this stylized version of the Frenchman onto the paper and worked with my neutralized palette from Nita Leland's book. I am growing extremely fond of this combination of colors. I like this painting and had a very enjoyable afternoon painting bigger than a 5 x 7 inch mini! I want to try this again focusing on a stronger dominance of cool vs warm tones. I think they are too even on this one with no dominance of temperature. I may do two more...one with 80/20 cool vs warm and the other 80/20 with warm vs cool.

It was so easy to paint with the drawing decided, the color palette decided, the texture done. I had fewer things to concentrate on so less stress, yet there were still plenty of decisions to make to keep it interesting and surprises to experience. If everything was totally worked out in advance then the joy of discovery would have been gone. Today was the perfect balance!

SERENDIPITY!

In between laundry, preparing my share of the Passover meal (soup, 20 matzah balls and 2 cakes that look like bricks to build a pyramid!!) I found some time to paint. SERENDIPITY! I managed to incorporate all the elements I most love into one painting. Texture...line...color...and a blend of abstract and realism. Unfortunately, this painting is only 10 x 14. I will try to do a full sheet of watercolor in this technique but you never know if the same magic will happen.

I have been rescuing pieces of used watercolor paper by applying gesso over the dreadful paintings and then taking wax paper and placing it on top of the wet gesso and running a brayer over the paper, then lifting it off. I decided to take the messy wax paper and press it down on another useless painting and deposit the gesso that was on the wax paper to it. I did this a number of times until I was satisfied with the balance of gesso blobs to leftover painting showing through. Today I decided to paint on this surface. I drew my "guy" on with a Pitt pen in Sanquine and then used Hydrus liquid watercolor by Dr. Ph. Martin. I must try this technique again as I just loved the results. Fortunately, I have an endless supply of used watercolor paper to play with.

As promised, more wisdom from Bruce ( I don't know him but I feel we are now on a first name basis)

5. Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.



6. Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

WORDS OF WISDOM, ONE DAY AT A TIME!

I spent some time today working on this painting. I wanted to finish it and move on. The surface is so liftable that it is easy to lose something you like while trying to correct something you don't. I had to really analyze each area I was contemplating changing and decide it it was important enough to risk the change. I hate when paintings become "precious" because you lose the fearless attitude of "go for it". It still bothers me that the face seems slightly skewed but I don't want to go any farther with this one. I learned a lot in the process and want to continue exploring painting on this surface. I have posted the original version and then the corrected version. It's truly amazing that one can make this much change in a watercolor.

There are people who express themselves with words that say what I feel and think so much better than I ever could. In my wanderings around the internet, I find some of these great bits of wisdom and save them in a file. I would like to share the "Incomplete Manifesto" by Bruce Mau. Who is Bruce Mau? I have no idea, but I like what he has to say. The Manifesto is quite long, so I shall post a little each day.

"1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them."

FIRST FEBRUARY PAINTING CHALLENGE COMPLETED!

I am pleased to be able to announce I have finally finished a painting for this month. It is already the 17th!!!! This is on Arches cold pressed block 12 x 16. It looks different than any painting I have ever done. I'm not totally satisfied with the result but I like a lot of what is happening and I decided to make this a painting where I was going to experiment with different ideas and see what happens. With all my value studies, I just dove in and didn't use any of them. I was considering value as I went along but it really is a better idea to have it planned out in advance. After reviewing the slide show again, I was struck how the value pattern of this stone was so similar to the painting I did today. I have no idea if this image was in my subconscious while I was painting.

One of the things I wanted to discover is whether Stretch and Cling wrap would make a good masking material. I did a light wet into wet wash all over the paper and let it dry. Then I stretched the wrap over the painting as tight as I could get it. It didn't quite cover the whole sheet so some of the bottom was uncovered Then I took my drawing (it was on tracing paper) and transfered the outline of the 3 figures onto the cling wrap. On the back of my tracing paper drawing I use a heavy line made from a watercolor crayon over the drawing lines. I turn it over and place it on my paper and using a mechanical pencil retrace the lines. This transfers a thin line of water soluble crayon on the paper and usually disappears by the time I have finished the painting. I used this method to transfer the outline of the figures onto the cling wrap. Then I used a tool I had purchased awhile ago but never used. It is a stencil cutter.... like a wood burning tool but has a very fine metal needle-like end that heats up and melts through stencil plastic. It worked great on the cling wrap. I'm not sure if the heat sealed the edge or not but I got a decent seal with the plastic wrap. Next I will try this tool on clear tape to see if it cuts through it. I am not very agile with an exacto knife going around curves not to mention I usually cut into the paper so this handy dandy instrument is very exciting! I got it at Michael's Craft Store with one of my 40% off coupons.
I started putting darker washes in the background sweeping right over the figures which were masked off. Then I took off the cling wrap and started working on the figures. Eventually, I decided to use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (found in the Grocery Store in the cleaning products isle) I tore it into small pieces and lifted color and swept it across certain passages. This has real potential for interesting blending of colors and edges as well as lifting color. I think I may have found a way to paint shapes and still have lost and found edges (a personal favorite of mine)

Tomorrow starts the George James workshop on Yupo. I will attempt to post each day and share his wisdom.
Now, time to tackle those damn taxes.