Painting loose and free is natural for many watercolorists, but I find it very challenging. For me, to paint loosely, I must 'think long and look slowly,' then paint deliberately with a sure stroke. No fussing. Knowing what to put in and what to leave out is part intuition and part design knowledge, just like color choice is. Being aware of each shape's edges then adding variety with soft, lost, and hard edges helped me create movement in the painting.
The range of darks and lights established focal and restful areas, depending on how close together they were located. The placement of small shapes with hard edges helped emphasize a focal area more.
Developing the unpainted areas so that each space was a different shape and size also added interest to this study. It may look like a quickly dashed off painting, but there were lots of subtle decisions made before the paint ever met the paper, and plenty of on-the-spot decisions were made while my brush was moving. It's fun and it's nerve wracking! And I love to paint:-D
"MAY DAY GERANIUMS" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches 7 x 9" COLLECTED
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9 comments:
"Think long and look slowly" Love it, and I'll use it for my workshops and classes! Beautiful painting.
Such a lot of good sense and advice in your text - especially for me at the moment as I feel the need to work more in watercolour and wet in wet keeping to my impressionist style of acrylic work. So helpful - so beautiful and love the tones of the greens.
How wonderful to see one of your studies. Thanks for posting this. Go take a look at the geraniums Laura Starrett has left up for the week. You'll see that I couldn't help thinking of them!
Love this!!!
this looks great! just perfect Sandy!
Sandy, this is wonderful!
Well this is sure loose and beautiful!!
s
What great light accenting the beauty of the flowers. I like the lost, soft edges and then the found ones. You always offer such helpful comments, causing me to think. That is a special gift you have, both in words and painting.
thank you for your visit to my blog today.. and for you aknowledgement of emily.
i look forward to meeting you.. and having the workshop.
your work is great...... so timeless.
carol
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