Eggs

Eggs On a Doily   watercolor   10.25 x 8.5

Yeah, I have a thing for eggs....paint them every spring.  I have painted them too heavily, too regularly and too solidly...but am always game for another attempt.  I picked up this doily from the thrift store and marveled at its translucence...the perfect foil for my eggs.  I am satisfied....for this year, anyways.

The alpha and the omega.

Royal Egg

Royal Egg   watercolor   13.75 x 6

is a second attempt at painting an egg on a silk scarf, the first being many years ago.  I wanted the egg to rest center stage.  I wanted to oppose the hard shell with the gossamer feel of cloth.  I am pleased with this result, especially with the paint quality.  While the paper was still damp and the support laying flat, I drizzled and dipped into raw umber in the area around the egg.  The resultant granulation excites me.  The difficulty was the lay of the scarf, which, despite my best attempts, positioned itself differently in each of four sessions...twice during two different class sessions and twice during two separate sessions at home.

An homage to the humble egg...isn't that where everything begins?

Eggs..

Chinoiserie Eggs  watercolor   12.5 x 9

are always a challenge to paint....white, elliptical and fairly reflective.  I usually try to put eggs into a composition with patterning in order to highlight, by contrast, these qualities.  "Chinoiserie Eggs" came into being fairly easily and, I have to say, I enjoyed the rendering of the blue design.  As always, the most difficult part became the opaque darks surrounding the pot itself.  Selective light washes were painted over most of the egg surfaces in order to really eliminate the "too much white stuff" quality that undermines so many watercolors.  Dirty water washes are often a great addition, I find, as the pigments swimming around in the wash water make for harmonious neutral glazes.

Making egg salad from the set up is just gravy.