Fiddling With an Idea

No title, yet.

This is a work in progress. No title, yet. Not close to a finish. Am Working on it daily.

After a conversation with another artist friend who had shown me some of his stunning watercolors, he informed me that he had used over 200 glazes (one layer over another of wet paint onto dry).

Some years ago, I did some of that sort of work with watercolor but found that a small simple painting might take a few weeks to complete. The effects of working that way can be very ethereal and subtle with all sorts of luminous things happening . . . .or developing mud if one doesn’t work with transparent glazes. Burnt Sienna, Viridian and Magenta.

He described a limited palette to me that he had used, Burnt Sienna, Viridian and Magenta . I had never ever considered that combo of colors before. With the abstract work I have been doing off and on over the last few years, his conversation gave me some interesting ideas. So, I went immediately to the studio to ‘fiddle’ with my ideas.

This piece now has around 40 glazes of thin watery color laid over each other. Sometimes, with one color, I may intentionally miss a shape and others I will cover that shape with another. Over time, as the colors mix optically, different intensities develop as well as values. In this piece my values have begun to separate distinctly and that is NOT what I set out to do. So, I must glaze over the lighter areas and work to bring the values closer together so that the colors may offer their contrasts of temperature or intensity rather than value.

Succinctly, it’s tricky! Watch for future posts of what happens to this painting. it could well become a stinker!