Drifting

When I began this painting, this was NOT what I had in mind.  I soaked a piece of Winsor Newton cold press watercolor paper and began painting a wave in a horizontal format.  I could tell as soon as I wet the paper that the sizing in the paper was no longer there.  I've probably had this paper at least 10 years.  I've had problems with sizing before with other brands of paper and found out a few months ago that sizing is a plant based substance and it does degrade over time.  I can't remember if I've told you that before or not so if I have, I apologize for repeating myself.  The loss of sizing does not harm the paper and has no effect on the longevity of the artwork, but it does alter how paint reacts on the paper.

Anyway, I've got a lot of older watercolor paper (I had a little too much fun buying art supplies for awhile) so when I start a painting and the sizing is no longer there, I coat the paper with matte medium which seals the paper.  It creates a different surface than sizing does because when the paper is sealed, the paint sits on the surface, which can be good and bad.  Lifting paint becomes very easy but care must be used when glazing so that previous layers aren't lifted.  Also, it's harder to build deep darks.

In this case,  I didn't seal this paper.  I had really saturated the paper with water and when the wave didn't seem to be working the way I had intended, I decided to paint an abstract.  I really do love abstract paintings but don't paint them too often because I find them hard to do because I'm such a literal and realistic painter.

This is painted with transparent watercolor and I also used some watercolor crayons and Derwent 'Inktense' watercolor pencils.  Such fun!

I think I like the painting with this orientation the best but I also like it in a horizontal format with the darker part on the bottom.  Which way do you like best?

Drifting
Image Size 22" x 15"
Watercolor