Brilliant Pepper

"Brilliant Pepper"

Image size 11" x 15"

Watercolor

Last week I took a watercolor workshop with Jeanne Hyland.  I worked on this painting in the class.  Her "wet and workable" method is very interesting and and I love the brilliant and saturated colors.  She had us working on a totally saturated piece of paper and we had quite a long time to work before it began to dry.  Controlling the water/paint ratio will take a lot of practice but this seems like a pretty forgiving way to paint with watercolors and I'm looking forward to trying it again.

Long Shadow

Long Shadow

Image Size 7.5" x 9"

Watercolor

I'm still having paper issues.  This painting is done on Fabriano Artistico and I don't think it will be my "go to" paper.  I like to paint by glazing multiple layers of color and on this paper, when I added layers, the previous layers lifted.  I think that is because there is a lot of surface sizing but I'm not sure.  I know, I sound like Goldilocks...too little sizing, too much sizing....  Also, it is a very fragile paper and I had some problems with it pilling while I was lifting paint.  I think it is a really nice paper for a lot of artists, but it didn't hold up to the way I paint.