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.  

Introducing Chaos to the Work

Daisies on Turquoise Ground   watercolor    8 x 8

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.