Gouache Redux

OH-585 S   watercolor and gouache   8 x 21

Many years ago I created several works in watercolor using a white gouache base that has been left to dry.  The colors become milky.  Pigment moves around, as this gouache layer acts somewhat as a gesso underpainting.  Whites can be retrieved, up to a point.  The delightful surprise this time around was that the resulting strokes left their own marks, leaving the work much more interpretive. I was less impatient to achieve reality.  I chose a simple layout with simple shapes.  The brush barely touched the surface.  Pie crust.  Darks are understated. 

This method provided the perfect atmosphere for a scene spotted on a beautiful spring day on OH 585-S while on a road trip to Wooster.

The brighter blue passages tickle my fancy.  I am pleased.

Finery

Finery   watercolor/gouache   26 x 18

Without a doubt, Easter is a day of finery.  People, as well as furry things, don their splendor as they emerge from winter hibernation.  Even the gold finches are on display as their feathers turn from yellow to yellower.  Brightness.  Light.  My quest in my work is that of the common human experience.  For this work, I used a family photograph from the 1950's.  My color inspiration was emerald green, which I might call viridian in the paint world.  A detailed sketch prefaced the work.  As the painting progressed, that bright green just seemed too out-of-place and subsequently morphed into softer, more muted hues in order to show off the pure, albeit sparse, used in the eggs and basket area.  The use of gouache softens and adds a milky quality to the pigment.  Pure white paper remains at the bottom and works its way up to the top, within the Easter bonnets.

I took this work to critique this past week.  We were to self-critique.  While on most paintings, I have areas of concern, on this one, I did not.  It progressed totally according to the plan.  One artist questioned the pure white at the bottom.  Another questioned the dark strokes between the feet in the sock area.  While I always consider the concerns of other artists, these two remarks were unfounded, I think.  The feet need a horizontal for the feet to be grounded, as well as to provide an entry for the movement of the whites.  The dark strokes in the sock area are not precise, to be sure.  But more precision here would, in my opinion, be out of sync with the broadly painted, and somewhat imprecisely rendered, shapes in the rest of the work.  Good comments.  But I will not heed them this time.

Happy Easter.  Enjoy your finery.