Well THAT first half of the year went fast .......

It seems like the last several months went by in a blur and I'm not sure what the next half of the year holds for me. I'm sure I have a million thoughts about it but I just don't feel like pondering them today. I do however want to share some of the painting I've been doing. I took a workshop from a friend of mine, Linda Knoll, the other day and she took us through the art of using masking fluid. It's kind of a fun thing - you paint white rubbery liquid onto white watercolor paper and then when it is dry, you paint color over the top of it. The idea is to protect the white bits of paper where your subject hopefully lies. After you feel there is enough color or color that you want on your paper, you wait for it to dry..... always with the drying when you're doing watercolor.......I'm amazed that I'm patient enough...... when all is dry you rub the rubbery stuff off and you're left with white spaces. Sort of a 'negative space' thing.



This is the 8 x 10 piece I worked on at the workshop.



Linda, though she starts her workshop off with "Well, I'm no expert (in watercolor) but I'll share with you some things I know..." knows a lot and it was fun and informative to work and listen and try different things. One of the things we covered was the different kinds of paper - paper is not just paper! No, no, no. Really good watercolor paper is 300 lb paper and I found that I like 'cold press' 300 lb rough watercolor paper. It's also probably the most expensive - pricing in at right around $8-10 a sheet. But it's also the paper that achieves the best results in that it offers uneven surfaces that allow more or less color saturation. I like watercolor in that it has that nice fluid, dreamy kind of feel, but I like my colors fairly saturated and intense which requires repeat layers of color with drying time between each layer. With a lesser grade of paper you can't really do that because the paper just will not hold up - and just when you think you're achieving something good the paper hits it's saturation point and from there on out you're only going to get a muddy looking mess. Really!

Did I say I wasn't going to talk much?  I hope that I wasn't snoring/boring but really, if you've not tried any of these things you really should. It's quite interesting. And for me - it's just one more thing that I cannot control but will make every effort I can to achieve some success.

This is a 5.5 x 7.5" done on 140 lb paper.



Another 5.5 x 7.5" on 140 lb paper.
I love this one!



These several paintings that I'm posting today were done after the workshop last week and are for sale. If interested just email me. They're quite affordable.

One other thing that I'm doing or attempting to do is to offer children's art classes or workshops for the summer. I've got signs out in my area of town so we'll see how that goes.

I've got another little idea up my sleeve, some tiny, self-matted greeting cards......but that's for another day. Soon. 

K



5.5 x 7.5 fun little sunflowers. Also on 140 lb paper.

The fascinating thing about watercolor is
the way the colors flow into each other
in a way you probably don't expect.
5.5 x 7.5" on 140 lb paper.