YUPO WATERCOLOR & GOLF

This time it's golf. Lots of golf balls, various sizes, help add interest to the painting. Or maybe you see a moon?

The painting started out somewhat differently than the other YUPO paintings I've done recently. I still used a grid to 'flatten' the picture plane but had some compositional problems with this painting. (See the original post below.)

I've revised the painting from the post late last night. The first posted painting was half green if you measured all the green areas, and the vertical tree trunk lines weren't anywhere else in the painting.

Creating a strong "Z" in the painting strengthened the composition a lot. Adding grasses in the bottom part of the painting helped subtly repeat the linear lines of the tree trunks. Floating in a few more golf balls and action lines lended more of the excitement of a golf game to the painting, too.

Cobalt Teal Blue was glazed over some of the tree foliage and remaining green areas to calm them down. Even some of the tree trunks were quieted. Finally, spotting in a few stronger orange shapes as well as lots of small dark splats of paint helped add movement throughout the painting also.

I wanted the energy and the expectancy that you feel when you're out there on the course to come across in the painting. It was fun to paint, and it led me around more than I led it. Kind of like golf! Or like watercolor?

My son and I have often discussed how golf and watercolor are so similar - the fewer strokes, the better the results... it's frustrating so much so that you hate it and yet you love it... some days you cannot do anything wrong and some days you play/paint like you've never held a club/brush before... it's immensely challenging.

"A GOOD DAY" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 26 x 20" COLLECTED! already:-)

CAPTURING CREATIVITY

Watching a child create can be mesmerizing. One of our grand daughters is staying with us this week, and she's glittered and glued, painted and pasted, sculpted and molded, and already spent over twelve hours with me in my adult art classes. What a treasure she is, too.

Being a grandparent is one of the best blessings ever! After almost five more hours in class tomorrow, she'll tell me if she wants to stay another week. She was convinced today that she does.

We also made time to go on a great shopping spree after church on Sunday, and I watched as she tried on a dozen dresses. She loves to twirl in them.

When she saw this painting of herself, she smiled, then said, "That's not what I was painting!" (I must've taken too much artistic license???)

"THE MASTERPIECE" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Fabriano Artistico 18 x 14" COLLECTED

COLLAGE OF WATERCOLORS

Old paintings which end up in the disaster drawer still have potential if you tear them up to use in collages like this one was done. All that's required is some matte medium to 'glue' down the torn or cut pieces plus an eye for finding the pieces and shapes with the right value and color for your painting.

Our show in Middletown, Ohio, will hang through a week from this Saturday, and this was the first painting that sold. Patt Belisle, their director, recently told me that several other people were also interested in this same collaged painting.

I do not understand why there's such a strong appeal for a painting made out of failed paintings, but it's happened every time I've made a collage in this way. (When you try this, use only the freshest, prettiest parts of the disaster paintings to tear up and paste into your new painting.) Each collaged piece has sold immediately, yet the wonderful Italian woman who bought this one did not even realize it was collaged. I did 'cheat' and add some splatters for more textural interest to the finished collage.

The post on January 28 is also a collage of a zebra made from old paintings. Check it out.

"MOCKINGBIRD SONG" Old, Transparent Watercolor Paintings, Torn, Rearranged, and Glued Down on 140#CP Arches, 16 x 12" COLLECTED