Love Painting BIG watercolors!

                                                                    "Flower Power"
                                                                         30 x 35"

 I'm sure that you can tell that there is a "story" behind this painting of a young woman with boxing gloves in a green world of falling flowers.

 I love the development of a painting from a fleeting idea to a full-fledged image.

This painting is being done on hot press paper; it's wonderful for creating puddles of color, texture and a watery look in all of those spring greens surrounding the figure. I masked out each of the flowers that are falling all around her, and then painted the background with lots of different greens. Since it is only 140# paper, all of that pigment and water caused lots of ripples and valleys in the paper. Rather than being a problem, it really was a big help in creating the mottled surface of the background. 

I'm really "hooked on" big paintings now! However, it does have its risks. As an example, see this photo below. Imagine putting a 35 x 42" painting in the bathtub!

Rescue?

 

 

 

 

Actually, it worked. I think I can now paint the bay and islands again. This photo is upside down. The blue is the sky (about 7 blues).  If it turns out, I'll post it so you can see why it was worth going to all this trouble to try to rescue it! The sky was the subject and despite all of my planning, the colors of the islands just did not work for me, and so thus the trip to the bathtub.