Texture

Texture is addictive and so full of possibility.  One cannot help but adore it.

I'm still working on tissue and gesso with watercolour washes and am preparing a snapshot of different pastes and gels and how they behave for an upcoming workshop.  I splurged today and ordered some more to add to some of the basic ones I already have and look forward to seeing what I can produce with them.

This is a piece called 'Laundry Day'.  I love the look of an unmade bed, all those wrinkles, dark corners and mounds.  Making a bed, well that's another story, one of those chores that have to be done without a lot of thinking.

I have a painting in mind for an unmade bed and need just the right light to make it happen, hopefully this weekend.

Firebird

The beauty in abstraction is that it can also let you find form where you thought there was none.

This combination of gesso and tissue on watercolour paper was randomly placed, simply 'glued' in place with gesso behind and on the tissue to act as a receptacle for colour.  The crevices that the paper creates and the texture of the gesso give a wonderful surface to experiment with.

After a few washes of watercolour, the form of a bird started to emerge from the surface.  I continued to allow it to come forward with darker washes at the edges and suddenly there was the firebird.  So named because of the intense golds and reds that predominate.

You never know what you will find if you look hard enough.