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| Daisies on Turquoise Ground watercolor 8 x 8 |
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| One Happy Pineapple watercolor 17 x 8 |
I love Wabi Sabi...things that are imperfect. The regularity of reality hits me like a brick and not in a good way. Therefore, I am always up for a bit of "destruction", a bit of chaos. It creates a more complex problem to solve and keeps my interest. There are so many ways to introduce chaos and there are different approaches and levels of handedness for various mediums. These works are both watercolors which were begun as monoprintss. A sketch was made....the plexiglass laid on top so that broad and wild applications of paint are made directly on this slippery surface. (Some artists prefer to lightly sand the plexi and to add liquid soap to the paint, changing its viscosity, so that it doesn't bead up so much). The "plate" is then pressed onto damp watercolor paper. There are blobs of beautiful color and beautiful shapes that can be manipulated for quite a while. Great fun. I then continued to work on the painting, adding a bit of detail and refinement. By beginning in this way, with less predictability, the painting benefits, I think, from having fewer deliberate strokes.
This is a wonderful way to approach inclusion of the background from the very beginning. Of course, as in most successful works, planning ahead of time aids in the freedom.
"Daisies on Turquoise Ground" and "One Happy Pineapple" are part of the exhibition at Group Ten Gallery through July 18.
