world getting smaller:: hearts growing bigger

Amanda   watercolor   20  x 13.5

Amanda, originally from South Africa, is an artist from my past watercolor session.  She is a sculptor by training.  AND

She has lived all over the globe in countries that have so little for their children to grab onto.....and hers is the hand that reaches out to them.  She is an ESL teacher....English as a second language.  For our session, she chose to pose rather then paint and was pleased to serve as our model.  She is wearing a traditional house dress from one of the countries she visited.

Painting from life involves much spontaneity and quick decision-making.  What a fun process!  I much prefer the energy of the impulsive searching strokes over the smooth plastic-y nature of a work that has been noodled to death.  It is definitely imperfect.  It is definitely wabi sabi. 

These sessions usually last about 1 1/2 hours.  I try to take a photo a few minutes into one of the 20 minute sessions so that I can add a bit of detail at home.

Call me crazy. I LOVE this kind of work.

Three Scoops on High

Three Scoops on High   watercolor  mixed   14.25 x 6

 Summer=ice cream.  No doubt.  

...and while we are experiencing a bit of mixed media fun, here is the result.

My idea revolved around realistic and highly textured scoops of varietal ice creams as well as a wrapped waffle cone.  The colors needed to be FUN!  This work was begun as a monoprint.  (see "It's The Berries") After printing, I began my first pass painting directly with paint on top of the monoprint.  I realized that the intense opera pink background, while super fun, completely upstaged the more subdued color palette of the cone.  Woe is me.  

My first corrective pass involved neutralizing the background with green.  No pizzazz.  

Time to take some risks.

As an all-out effort to save my idea, I created a template of tracing paper that was stuck to the top of the cone.  I used an old checkerboard linoleum plate to print on top of the watercolor ground.  As it was so very sharp and so very intense, I used a brush flooded with water to create some areas of mushed-together blandness and, at the same time, allowing some of the original pink to peek through.  Edges were then refined to conjoin the cone with the ground.

I am happy.....it was fun and gave me an adrenaline rush similar to the partaking of the luscious cone itself.  

It;s The Berries

Raspberry   watercolor   13 x 10.5

 "Raspberry" was such a fun watercolor project!  As I become bored with the repetition and seriousness of more serious projects, I throw in a bit of fun now and then.

This began as a monoprint in watercolor and finished up with the usual brush and paint.  A loose drawing is made and transferred onto a piece of tracing paper.  The reversed tracing paper drawing is put underneath a piece of plexiglass which is the approximate size of the paper.  Paint is applied directly to the plexi.  Paper is then pressed down onto the plexi.  You can use a baron if you want to....it changes the reception of the paint onto the paper a bit and flattens it out.

The painting is then continued as one would do usually, by assessing just what needs to be done.

By starting with the loose chaos of the monoprint, the work often has an energy of its own and a textural quality in direct opposition to the direct application of paint with a brush...this process shakes up the creative problem solving element, which refreshes my  desire.  

I like this painting!