Painting Watercolour using a Wet-in-Wet Technique

Last summer I made this time lapse video of painting a watercolour using a 'wet-in-wet' approach. That means painting onto wet, cotton paper using wet paint!

Today I added a voice-over to the video. The sound isn't great because I didn't use a microphone - just the built in one in my imac. Still, if you crank up the sound, I think you'll be able to hear it OK.

Working "wet-in-wet" is so intriguing because the dampness of the paper, which is made of cotton, creates a softness, a luminosity and an unpredictability as the paint colours mix together and change.

My inspiration came from a small monoprint I made using the watercolour on plexiglass technique that I've recently written about. I projected it onto a full sized watercolour sheet. Then I traced around the colours using a white oil pastel crayon and applying a lot of pressure on the paper. That line of oil or crayon will create a barrier for the watercolour and will work as a resist.

This is the original monoprint that I drew my inspiration from.

Using a mechanical aid and working from an existing piece of art were departures for me - it kind of felt like cheating. What I learned from it is that I could focus on the actual painting because the colours and composition were already worked out.

I'd like to try it again now during winter while I wait for flowers to grow.

Here is another example of enlarging a sketch onto watercolour paper. This is a sketch I made on location at Brier Island a few years ago.

Brier Island's Big Pond.

The resulting enlarged watercolour.

Here is a very short video of the painting process. It works best if you paint watercolours from light to dark.

Why don't you give it a try?  It's interesting to work on a piece that is so much larger than the original. 

Flora's paintings in one place

I have created a website as a display for my large finished paintings. It is a 'work in progress' and I think you will like the feature that rearranges the images when you click on a tag at the top of the page. For instance,  clicking on 'landscape' brings up all the landscape paintings.

I had looked long and hard for a web design that showcased images on the home page, because this is what I want to see when I look at other artists' sites.

 I'll be adding more images and some 'back stories' about the paintings. For now, I am glad that I have taken this step to show what paintings I've completed - all in one place.

Check it out!

http://floradoehler.ca

In the meantime, I'll still blog here about the painting process and about the end results too.

New Paintings for the Gallery in Bear River

Hello again! Where does the time go? I've been busy in the studio finishing up canvases to take to the gallery at the Flight of Fancy here in Bear River as the tourism season approaches.  It's feels good to finish up these pieces and to make more space in the studio for new work.

In the Sunlight
30" x 36" acrylic on canvas by Flora Doehler $1200 CAN
at the Flight of Fancy, Bear River Nova Scotia

In the Sunlight was painted while snow still covered the field outside our studio which made it even more thrilling to study these tulips.....actually 2 different bouquets because it took me a while to finish this painting.

Feeling Sentimental
24" x 30" acrylic on canvas by Flora Doehler $900 CAN
at the Flight of Fancy, Bear River Nova Scotia

Feeling Sentimental was painteds with acrylics using a wet-in-wet approach. I wanted to get a dreamy mood to the painting to convey the joy of a summer's garden bouquet. I started this late last fall when the blooms were still coming, and finished it over the winter.

Gladiolas
24" x 30" oil on canvas by Flora Doehler $1200 CAN
at the Flight of Fancy, Bear River Nova Scotia

I painted Gladiolas using a combination of oilpaint and oil sticks. I love the smell of oil paint and would eventually like to replace my acrylics with it. I enjoy building up texture with oil and I also like the line I can get with the oil sticks.

Hidden in the Shadows
24" x 30" acrylic on canvas by Flora Doehler $975 CAN
at the Flight of Fancy, Bear River Nova Scotia

I blogged about painting Hidden in the Shadows. I really liked its outcome and feel inspired to explore more interiors in my painting.

The Green Trees Whispered
24" x 30" acrylic on canvas by Flora Doehler $850 CAN
at the Flight of Fancy, Bear River Nova Scotia

The title The Green Trees Whispered is taken from a Longfellow poem. This bucolic scene is my interpretation of the view out of one of our studio windows. We are up the hill from the river and these trees serve as a wind break and are always moving and dancing. I love the sound of the wind in the trees. It sounds like an ancient conversation.

It feels great to move these paintings downtown where I hope they will find happy homes! If you are curious about any of them, please let me know and I'll try to answer your questions in a timely manner!!

There is no actual rest though. The garden beckons and we must prepare for the upcoming outdoor markets int Bear River (Sunday afternoons) and Annapolis Royal (Saturday mornings). But, it's all good!

Painting Winter Fields

Charcoal sketch of field patterns.

It's absolutely gorgeous outside right now. There is a thick blanket of snow covering the fields, and the  hills. With all the leaves gone it is really easy to see through the trees to the hills on the other side of the river.  What I see is long stripes of trees that border fields, slashed diagonally by roads that wind their way down the hills.

Looking from the Annapolis side towards Riverview Road.

The colors now are so muted that it is a challenge for a color-loving painter like me to actually paint that scene in a monochromatic way.  in fact it would be easier for me to use brilliant colors to depict the snow scenes around me–but I want to try an abstracted approach using muted colors.

Acrylic on canvas.

I start with charcoal drawings to get a sense of the shapes in the distance.

Charcoal sketch of snow scene.

Larry is immersed in creating a pendant and is listening with me to a podcast from This American Life about the fictitiousness of money, starring the Federal Reserve.

I discovered, quite by accident, that if I put my paper on top of the hot wood stove, and draw on it with crayon that the wax melts instantly and leaves a very dramatic line.This must be what encaustic painters experience!

Melted crayon on paper and charcoal.

I chose for my palette:

• anthraquinone (blue )
• burnt sienna (rust)
• raw umber (brown)
• titanium white
• carbon black

These canvases are 16" x 16". I'm using fluid acrylics mixed with matt medium. This one was my favorite as far as the intensity of colour.

I rarely use burnt umber and I never use black. In fact I hardly ever use white either. So all of these choices amount to a complete departure for me. But I was determined to give it a try.

This was my favorite of the 3 canvases as far as paint texture goes.

I will work on them tomorrow with the objective to create a more harmonious look and feel to the 3 canvasses. Although I really like the intensity of the colour, it is more than I intended. But, a reduced colour seems to go against my very nature. I may try to mute things anyway. Stay tuned!

Canvases drying on my new cushioned mats. (I stand when I paint).

This is a good exercise to work on while winter is upon us!

The studio is like a giant playroom for Larry and me.