It's that time of year - the St. Michaels Art League hangs a watercolor exhibit at our local library each December. (except last year...COVID restrictions kept the library closed)
Years ago I had 'promised' myself that I would try to put something in every exhibit that the art league put on. So, even though I haven't been using watercolor lately, I needed to get back to it! Since I have enjoyed the looseness of acrylic paint pouring, I knew I didn't want to go back to realistic scenes of Maryland's Eastern Shore. What to paint?
One of the best ways of creating something new would be to get out my Yupo paper and experiment with it. I began with wetting the paper and dropping color onto it. I love watching to see what the paint will do. This was my first attempt.
It was fun to do and did loosen me up. When I showed it to my art group, they politely said things like "It looks like a salad." They particularly liked the green. OK, I would play with that. I began adding more greens and filled in all the white spaces. Maybe a salad in a wooden bowl. I could add wooden serving fork and spoon...let them go out of the painting onto the mat... So, I played with it a little... I put a little paint around for a bowl and then tried some scrap paper cutouts of fork and spoon. The more I 'took it over' the less I liked it!
Time to get out another sheet of Yupo! This time I wet the paper and washed over it with different greens and blues. It turned out mostly green. While it was very wet, I just began making circular shapes with my paint brush - having no idea what was happening. I let it dry thinking I would go back to it and add some other colors. When I showed this to my group... they were again polite. They saw various things including fields..maybe ready for harvest? It really wasn't meant to be anything at that point.
The following day, I began to dab various colors of paint on it just to see what would happen. The wonderful thing about Yupo is that you can wash it off completely, so what did I have to lose? I dabbed the paint here and there and then blotted it off with a tissue. I was having such fun! The tissue got wetter and wetter... Then I 'let er rip' and began to swipe with the wet tissue. It picked up the paint leaving some wonderful ragged edges. I liked what was happening....it was hard to stop!
I'm calling this "Fall into Winter."
It makes me think of a snowy winter wind blowing the fall leaves.
I wanted to put two paintings in the exhibit so I had one more to work on... The next day I went a little crazy and experimented with the watercolor to see if I could get it to pour like acrylic paint. Well, no it doesn't. I wet the paper and started blobbing on color. It wasn't wet enough to do much so I sprayed it with my water misting bottle. I held the paper up vertically, added more paint here and there and watched the paint run. What a mess! I kept adding paint in various places, trying to balance lights and darks. Knowing that watercolor dries lighter (and knowing that I could wipe it all off the next day and begin again), I decided to walk away and take a look 24 hours later.
The next morning I looked at it and wondered what to do with it. Hmmm, I looked around. Our house has hardwood flooring throughout. I looked at the painting and looked at the floor. I love seeing the hardwood grain... what about making some 'grain' in the painting?
This is where Yupo is really fun. I got out some toothpicks, a bowl of water and some tissues. What if I wet a toothpick and trace about the painted shapes... and then blot the wet lines... Voila!
I found the zone... this painting met my need to let go (letting the paint go where it wants) and get back some control (outline the shapes)! As I 'erased' the paint, I kept putting a mat around it to pick out the parts that I wanted keep. You can see this side-by-side photo and pick out the shapes.
Here is a larger version of the finished painting.
I'm calling this one "Fantasy Garden."
The watercolor exhibit will be hanging at the St. Michaels Library during the month of December.
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