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MEDIUM: Watercolor on Paper
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SIZE: 30" x 22"
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STATUS: Sold
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ACCOLADES: Best Watercolor People's Choice Award, Art Guild of Tellico Village (TN) 2018 Spring Art Show
"I gathered items for this still life from various sources: an old fiddle and its worn case we had bought from our friend Charles years ago to encourage my desire to learn to play; a borrowed family heirloom quilt; the pocket watch with a braided leather strap given to us by a hardworking old friend named Floyd who said the watch had belonged to his dad, and my antique Ball canning jar looking like the traditional jar of 'shine. I set everything up on my porch, with the old handmade chest we use as a coffee table and with one of our porch rockers. The sun was bright and I took photos from different angles before settling on my favorite. I liked a view of the scene with the eye-level low, as if seen by a young grandchild.
There are often unexpected results in a watercolor painting, even with a control-freak like me, and I find it challenging to process them. I painted the various fabric squares of the quilt first - and had great fun with all the patterns and colors. But, oops... I stepped back when I had completed this part of the painting and the quilt was screaming at me - too bold, too sharp and too bright. I had wanted it to be a soft, subtle background, but, left as it was, I thought it would compete for attention with the items I wanted to have more visual importance. So I filled my bucket with clean water, got out the 2" wide brush and some paper towel, and did wet-blot-wet-blot to remove lots of the pigment. Watercolors vary in their tendency to just sit as a sediment on the surface of the paper or to be absorbed into the fibers. Those which are sedimentary wash away very easily. Fortunately, the paints I had used had good staining ability, so I could somewhat control how much color got removed. Viola! A soft, faded and muted background, much like the quilt would look after years of use and washings, appeared. The slightly bumpy texture of my "cold press" heavy 300 lb. watercolor paper also added to the textured look of quilted fabric. 'Looked like this would work."
