Jellyfish
Image size 30" x 22"
Watercolor
I took the reference photos for this painting from our trip to the Vancouver aquarium four years ago and have always loved the brilliance of the oranges and blues and finally decided to try to paint them. I'm not sure that I captured the lighting that made them glow but I'll live with it for awhile and then decide if I need to make any changes.
I used Lanaquarelle paper, and in the past, I remember it being easy to lift paint from but I didn't find that to be the case here. In fact, in the upper left corner, I think the sizing had disintegrated already even though I had just opened the pack of paper so I wasn't able to lift paint at all. There are 10 sheets in the pack so I'm not too happy about the possibility of so many pieces of paper having sizing issues.
I'm getting really tired of holding my breath every time I put paint to paper waiting to see if there is sizing in the paper or not. I have heard that Arches paper company changed its sizing in the past couple of years and many artists don't like it ( my Arches paper is older than that) but I'm wondering if all of these paper companies have changed to a sizing that has a short shelf life.
In the case of the Arches paper, I heard that there were environmental issues with the old sizing and that was the reason for the change. I've been told that sizing is a plant based ingredient, so I'm not sure why there were environmental issues. I just know that I'm getting really tired of not having confidence in any of my watercolor paper.
Bonjour chère amie,
ReplyDeleteJ'aime beaucoup le travail de vos méduses. Les couleurs que vous avez employées sont magnifiques.
Je ne pratique pas beaucoup l'aquarelle et je me sens un peu perdue lorsque vous parlez de référence de papiers. cependant cela est très intéressant d'apprendre grâce à vous.
Je n'ai pas encore testé, mais j'ai acheté de très joli papier pour l'aquarelle au Moulin Richard de Bas. Je n'habite pas très loin de ce lieu et j'aime beaucoup visiter l'entreprise.
Ils ont un site que je vous suggère de visiter :
http://www.richarddebas.fr/papier.html
Je vous fais de gros bisous.
Merci Martinealison. Je vais vérifier sur ce site. J'aime toujours essayer de nouveaux papiers.
DeleteYou've captured this beautifully, Nancy. I also like the complementary scheme going on.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sherry. The blue/orange,rust combo has always been my favorite.
DeleteDear Nancy - this is beautiful. Love those blues and the compliment orange. As for the sizing in the paper...had not heard that it had changed...thanks for the heads up. I often use Fabriano Artistico over Arches...haven't really tried lifting too much so not sure that there is a change in their sizing as well. Hope you have a wonderful day.
ReplyDeleteThank you Debbie.
DeleteBeautiful colors in this watercolor, Nancy. The aquarium sounds like the perfect place to get reference photos!
ReplyDeleteThank you Hilda. Yes, I got some amazing photos there.
DeleteI love the bright colors in this one and you really captured the movement of the jellyfish. I wonder if there is a sizing that you could buy and put onto the watercolor paper?
ReplyDeleteThank you Theresa. Yes, there is a sizing that you can apply. I've never used it. I bought it once and it was really thick and it seemed like too much effort to use. I'll probably stick with my method of sealing the paper with matte medium. You have to use a different technique for painting but it also gives some beautiful results.
DeleteWell. My Dear you may have no paper confidence, but you do have luminosity. The light just burst out of this painting and the colors work. I can"t identify with the issues, but it is unnerving not to know what will,happen when paint, water and brush not the paper.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nelvia. I wanted to fuzz the edges of the soft, whitish stuff but it wasn't happening on this paper. I may try this again with encaustics. I think that would be really fun.
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