Saturday, February 06, 2010

Koi pool complete

I have been without telephone, television and internet for the last 24 hours due to the blizzard that hit, leaving a calling card of about 45cm of snow.  Not fun.

But the lack of distractions increased productivity in terms of painting and the business and marketing side of art.  I rearranged files, catalogued images, tranferred documents and images to my external hard drive and created new ones.  I may never find anything ever again...

I continued work on the batik-like watercolour that I started the other night and am calling it complete now.  I have to say that I quite enjoyed painting this and love the colour contrasts.  I'm planning more when using this paper and have another piece started that I will use as a step by step piece for anyone who wants to try this technique.


This is done on a half sheet of masa paper which is glued to another half sheet of 140lb Bockingford watercolour paper. Buckling wasn't too much of an issue, nothing that flattening it under a box of paper won't cure.

15 comments:

Julie Dunion said...

the effect is beautiful, this is a rather special piece of work. I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this technique next.

Sandy Maudlin said...

Your painting is wonderful...the textures so compliment the design, and the colors are an unpredictable surprise. Great job!

Nithya Swaminathan said...

Beautiful finish Jeanette! Love your recent experiments have all been beautiful, great fun to follow. love the semi abstract look you achieved with this one. Awesome!

Rose Welty said...

Another winner Jeanette!

Jeanette Jobson said...

Thanks Julie, I love how this paper creates patterns within itself.

Sandy, without the inspiration of your work, this never would have happened. Thank you.

Thanks Nithya, I've enjoyed playing and learning.

Thanks for your constant support Rose, it means a lot.

Billie Crain said...

Really impressive, Jeanette! The koi are wonderful. I especially like the fact that you managed to put the fish in the water. That's tricky to do.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Thanks Billie. Yes, I struggled with trying to keep them underwater, its more difficult than imagined.

Robert said...

Wow. That looks great. It's nice to know something good came out of this blizzard.

Jan said...

Yes! It's as I imagined - this is a perfect technique to koi! It's beautiful!

I'm sorry you lost your modern conveniences but glad the loss gave you the impetus to finish this.

What size is it?

M said...

It seems the blizzard was good for painting. It got me to the studio for a marathon of painting where I put the finishing touches on 3 paintings that I can now call finished.

I love this piece Jeanette. The textures add to the overall effect. Sometimes I find using this technique produces works that are a little contrived. Not so for you. How was the process of creating this work different from the poppy? I'm curious about subject matter.

Jennifer Rose said...

gorgeous :D the fish truly look like they are underwater

Collette Williams said...

Absolutely LOVE your koi and rainbow trout! Do you have original art of either for sale? I have your link posted on my facebook wall now and have had positive responses from friends.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Thanks Robert, blizzards do have their uses sometimes.

It does work well for aquatics I think Jan. I am trying out more soon.

Margaret, it sounds like the storm created productivity with you too. There are some benefits to bad weather at times.

The differences between the poppy and this involve a couple of things. The poppy was done sort of on the fly. I was creating and learning about how the paper reacted as I went along. And flowers are my least favourite thing to create, so I'm sure that factored into it.

With the fish, I had a plan, I had experience drawing and painting fish and my interest level was higher. I believe the factors of interest and higher knowledge of technique (or reaction) make a huge difference in how a piece turns out.

I will never be a flower painter, but always paint and draw and print fish.

Jennifer, thanks, I was really trying to get that effect without losing them entirely or have them sitting on the surface.

Thanks Collette, it great that you like the piscean pieces so much. I'm quite fond of them too. :)

The original trout is up for sale on Ebay as of today http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190371375081&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

I will be creating some prints from the koi and if you are interested in the original, I can email you a price, just let me know.

Lindsay said...

Wow so that storm hit you way up North too! What a lovely way to spend during a winter storm. I LOVE the look here with the WC on that textured paper. Great idea to glue it to Bockingford too.

I'm using mulbury paper and will detail it more on my Tools blog later. But it works well sending it through the printer even though its so thin. I love the way texture "talks" back.

These have great depth to them.

sue said...

So sorry you were snowed in, and without power, but these are awesome, Jeanette--you certainly made good use of your time. Stunning!