Social Climber poured watercolour

Poured watercolour of a purple clematis  

I just had to call this painting Social Climber as there are so many blossoms growing over top of one another.  So many rich shades of blues, pinks and purples.

When to say when

There are times when I am unsure to call a painting complete or not.  I find this challenges me more with poured watercolours than traditional painting styles. The paint stains the paper quite heavily when you pour, often creating sharper edges than you intended during the masking process.  Pouring makes it  harder to edit the painting while balancing the tone and maintaining transparency of colour. 

When I removed the masking compound I thought the underpainting looked washed out as the mask holds pigment on top.  When you remove the masking the layer of pigment below ir are also removed. 

The final pour with the masking still on is usually quite bold. You sure miss the colour intensitey when it has been removed. The final part of my process I use my reserved paint from the pours to go back in and enhance the underpainting. This one is a bit different in that I did not pour green just applied it at the end with my brush.

Step away from the painting

FIrst is knowing when to say when.  Put the brushes down.  Step away from the painting.   And really, poured watercolours need to be viewed from across the room.  You see the illusion better and not each individual mask or paint application.  All kidding aside, the further back you are the more dimensional the work appears to be! Pretty cool actually. A few steps of my painting process in slideshow below:

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This lovely clematis grows in my sister-in-law Teri’s magical garden in PEI.