I’ve been using all my art time recently to paint, finally taking a breather to show you what I’ve been up to. My concentration for the past couple of years has been on scratchboarding, which I love. But it was time to change gears and get back to watercolors. As a longtime member of the Tennessee Watercolor Society, I wanted to have at least two new show-worthy watercolor paintings to enter the 2024 biannual exhition, to be held in Knoxville in May.
I was surprised to find myself struggling to switch over to watercolors after my time away from it. Who would think I would lose my watercolor mojo after more than 4 decades of painting? It seemed like the perfect time to start fresh, and break away from some of my regular approaches. I wanted to loosen up my style, try new techniques, and work with different pigments and papers. I wanted to explore some subjects I had been wanting to paint for a long time, but with a new freshness. I studied works of other artists (in all media) whose books I've collected, watched videos (so helpful) and tried some ways of painting I don't commonly use. Landscapes sparked my interest, particularly because I live in a beautiful place with mountain views, waterways, enchanting forests, and wide vistas. During this learning period, I found myself more observant of changing natural light, colors, reflections, and shadows. I watched how the time the day, the weather, the position of the sun, and other environmental factors changed the scene. I recalled seeing a fabulous museum exhibition of Claude Monet's impressionistic work at the Boston Museum of Art long ago. It was overwhelming to enter a huge room filled with his paintings of haystacks in all sorts of outdoor conditions, and observe the variations he captured. Another room was hung with his series of Rouen Cathedral, which I read he painted over 30 times during a 2-year period to capture the changes from the time of day and time of year.
My experimental watercolors have resulted in some successes and some flops, but I’ve learned a lot and have been having fun. I feel energized in my quest to do something new. Loosening continues to be a struggle, since I am a detail addict, but at least it's in the mix now.
The large painting above is the Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine, and it's a start at incorporating some different procedures in my painting style. This iconic vista inspired me while there for a summer picnic a few years ago, and I decided it was finally time to tackle it in watercolor. I never considered myself a landscape painter, so this seemed a good place to begin. My friend Christine’s photos from the same vantage point of the lighthouse in early morning motivated me to convert the midday sun view from my original reference to a colorful sunrise scene - while aiming to keep the focal point on the lighthouse itself. From a technical point of view, I used transparent watercolors in a traditional manner, did no masking - just preserving the white of the paper, worked wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry, used dry brush in places, lifted out some areas to make them lighter, and did areas of glazing.
The collage of paintings show some of my warm-up watercolors. I didn't realize how many I've done (even with editting out those not worthy to finish) until I grouped them in this photo. I look a bit schizophrenic with so many topics and styles, but I've never been one to stick with the same subject and being open to many options was goal of my journey. By the way, if you see one which interests you, each is for sale, unframed and at a bargain price! Just contact me for more info.
Meanwhile, I’m still working on show entries, with a looming deadline. My final results will be posted soon!
