My Painting Process
My Painting Process presents insights, techniques, materials and behind-the-scenes looks of how my artwork develops and comes to life.
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Summer’s Jewels – Nasturtiums
Summer’s Jewels was so much fun to work on – I mean I completely love these colours. And I completely loved pouring the colours of nasturtiums! There were a few moments of uncertainty – like when the making compound really did not want to come off. Took me a few hours…. and a blister to make it happen! This painting went through seven different pours – one colour I applied twice to increase the intensity. Below is the peel reveal I friend and I were recently discussing colours what subjects pour better or what make a successful poured painting. Whether monochromatic or complimentary colours pallets would be more effective? I…
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Sunshine Yellow Azaleas
I just finished this poured watercolor commission of sunshiny yellow azaleas I think what I like best about poured paintings is how fast they seem to build. The process keeps you engaged daily – I typically work on them each day for about two weeks. Each stage has to dry completely before you move onto the next. But the progress really builds nicely. There were seven pours with this painting. Once completely dry I removed the frisket. I call this the peel reveal. Some artists take their work to this stage and call it done. I personally cannot do this, although I have been tempted a few times with the…
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Duckie Duet and trouble with my easel
So today I had one of those days in the studio Everything I touched went wrong. Easel Troubles. The bottom support on my big easel dropped to the floor right through my fingers with a loud bang and a bad word. The ball bearings in the crank mechanism hit the floor and rolled all over the place. Unfortunately we were unable to recover all of them. Does anyone know how to reassemble a crank easel? The air in the studio has to be exceptionally dry this time of year with the electric heat going all the time. Because of the dry wood on the easel frame we couldn’t tighten it…
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What I have learned
What I have learned while attempting to Painting 30 28 Paintings in 30 Days Once I got over the initial fear of committing to a project of this magnitude, I made the decision to approach it with a few ground rules for myself: First – that I would not compromise on quality; and Second – that I wanted to use this challenge to explore new surfaces and mediums What I have learned: That I like to paint watercolors on larger paper 11.5 x 14, what is call ¼ sheet. It only took one day for me to realize this size was not sustainable as it takes too long to complete a…
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The Naming of a Painting of a Raven
Naming the bird Here is my yet unnamed and unfinished painting of a raven. My friends at Google tell me that there are three names for a group of ravens. Unkindness. Conspiracy. Constable. When I embark on painting a series I do quite a bit of research on the subject, in this case ravens. I like to title my paintings with meaning whenever possible, especially if I can come up with a name that includes somme tongue-in-cheek humour. What’s in a name? I know ravens are important in the culture of First Nations (and I have this lineage on my mother’s side) so my curiosity is naturally piqued. An Unkindness,…
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Call of the Raven
I admit that from the moment I started planning this raven painting that I was unsure what to title it. While I was uploading photos of the work in progress it occurred to me to name it “Call of the Raven”. This makes sense as it is certainly cawing about something. I did quite a bit of research with my good friend Google to find out “what do you call a group of ravens?” The search came back with a few possibilities such as “unkindness, constable, conspiracy and parliament”. I played with “Call to Parliament” but when I tested it with a few friends they really didn’t understand it…
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Yesterdays Blooms Finally Finished
The name Yesterday’s Blooms came from a few different ideas I had white working on this watercolour of white roses that grow in the back corner of my yard. Early in the season the blooms are so white, almost a transparent white. As the season progresses, the blooms take on a hint of pink. Only to become quite pinkish and coral nearer to the fall as the bloom matures. I stepped back from this painting for a period (far too long) once I deepened the background. I had to get my head around how deep the values really are on the “white” roses. The value of a grey scale value…
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Hat Trick
I am loving this technique I love that even with the layers of paint you can still see the impasto underpainting- in this cast the texture I created by painting through burlap. The process is mess and I admit I am quite nervous with as I usually know almost exactly what I am doing. Not quite the case with complex underpainting processes and also with poured watercolour paintings. The element of surprise and then the reality of what in the heck am I going to do with this? I admit I am a planner. I will decide on a element whether it be the subject or the texture and think…
