-
Country Garden Favourite
Country Garden Favourite is a traditionally painted watercolour of hollyhocks. Hollyhocks and mallow were a couple of my mother’s favourite flowers. And I guess, seeing them through her eyes as a child helped me to gain an appreciation for them as well. I always associate them with an old fashioned country garden. I truly love these blooms for their beauty and the nostalgia. No wonder I love to paint them. They bring me back to Cape Breton Good memories. Salty air. Sunshine. Wonderful memories of a place that was truly wonderful to be a child in. The beauty of blue There is another flower that takes me back there as…
-
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…
-
Magenta Magic
Magenta Magic is a poured watercolour painting of colour rich hollyhocks. Every time I do a poured watercolour I learn something new. Or re-learn something over and over. When you remove the masking compound, it changes the colours beneath it. For some reason the colours dull down. So weird. I would have said it was would only happen to yellow. But no, it is that way with most colours. And I really do know this and yet keep getting surprised by it. And that is why I call pouring process underpainting. Although the finishing brushwork is minimal. Magenta or fuschia? That is the question of the day. These two…
-
Sunshine and Shadows floral painting
This sunshine filled floral painting makes me happy. It’s funny, whenever I think I am finished a painting I will often have self doubt. That was the case with this one. I decided to set it aside for awhile and went upstairs to start supper. When I went back into the studio it stopped me in my tracks. It was glowing as luminous as I had hoped it would be! The yellows so sunny and yummy. Poured or sprayed paintings I approached this painting slightly differently by spraying the paint onto the wet surface. I actually thought that it may be less messy. Boy, was I wrong. The coloured mist…
-
The Pond in Mid Summer
Fear factor The Pond in MidSummer may be compete!I feel like I have been working on this for such a long time.. and I have…so challenging. Monochromatic Greens Painting with green in acrylic are also quite the challenge. The colours are never quite what you expect. And then they dry darker. Greens in watercolour are so much easier. There is no standardization in colours between brands. Sap green in one brand may be garish and in another almost olive. What the heck. That brings me to the colour I love to hate. Viridian! It is up there with the ever challenging cerulean (in watercolour) . Vididean is neon, unforgiving…
