Painting exercise – An Iris, symbolising love a wisdo

Even though we are still in February, I am feeling the onset of Spring.     Everywhere I look, I see the signs.    So many bulbs shooting up through the soil and that tell tale sign of the sap beginning to rise.     Such an exciting time of the year.    These feelings are begging me to use vibrant colour…..and so I am using an Iris as my jumping off point for a watercolour/gouache painting exercise.

rapid watercolour with a little gouache here and there…….I have learned that the Iris symbolises love and wisdom  – two elements that we can never have enough of…..

This is a playful exercise….a good way to warm up.

Using a big brush, I apply bold colourful marks to the paper….You can do this exercise on newspaper, inexpensive wallpaper lining, anything at hand.   The key is to go for it and enjoy. 

I begin to establish the form of the Iris….important to note that all the whites you see thus far are dry white paper.     I am emphasising keeping dry white paper areas in this exercise, rather than wetting the whole sheet.    This will give more control and ultimately those dry white areas bring sparkle to a watercolour painting.

I add paint to the background and pull out certain areas with a clean wet brush….all the white areas showing are dry white paper.

To avoid muddiness – a clean wet brush can do wonders in moving paint around.     I then decide to give the image more drama and add a dark wash into the negative space surrounding the Iris.      I don’t use black…this dark is made up from  a Burnt sienna/ Prussian Blue mix plus some of the purple I have used in the Iris. While the surface is wet, I scrape out some areas with a knife.   I have also added a little Permanent White Gouache into the final frame….note how the gouache bleeds from the Irish into the surrounding paint.

Very important to move colour around the picture and to allow the paint to do its own thing….this is where watercolour mediums are quite magicalI have several short videos on YouTube which can be helpful.   They can be found by entering my name into the YouTube search engine.

Along with Podcasts I plan to do some longer videos during the coming year.

Remember love and wisdom are the words for today….two elements the Magical Hummingbirds understand well.

A Bientôt.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end’ – Seneca

‘Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end’  Seneca

watercolour/gouache

Since I last posted on the 15th December – on the one hand it has been a whirlwind and on the other a very special time of reflection.

My daughter Christie arrived on the 29th for the Funeral which was on the 30th and stayed with me until this past Friday when she flew back to Boston.       As always our time together was very special.

After the Funeral,  Christie and I went to Wellington in Somerset with very good friends for three days, which was the perfect thing to do.

watercolour/gouache

It is now time to move gently into the new year where I plan to establish more fluidity and flow to my work, always taking my cue from the creative process and of course the magical hummingbirds:)

I also plan to add more colours to my palette in the form of podcasts and videos on youtube.      In the same way that I knew nothing about blogs when I started writing one nine years ago, I know absolutely nothing about making Podcasts….but I will learn.

I always make sketches of my children when I see them.    These hummingbirds were waiting for me to integrate Christie into the painting.

Two hummingbirds with Christie – watercolour/gouache. 

Please bear with me as I catch up and get into new rhythms of being.     I am looking forward to reading so many other blogs……

Meanwhile, I wish one and all a very lovely New year filled with good health, peace and creativity.

A Bientôt