playing with watercolours and collography

MIL is still taking up much of my time but she is now in a very good residential home close to us. It is only a four week trial period but we are hoping that she will setle in. It is an ideal solution for us but MIL is still in denial about her abilities to look after herself at home, especially during the night. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it works out.



I have managed to get to my art group this week and although I wasn't feeling particularly inspired, I took my watercolours along and am still getting the feel of the brushes and paper. It has been so long since I did any real painting. I took some photos of a sunset last week and this inspired me to use this theme as a subject. I had intended to do another monochrome painting, but I needed just a little vermillion to help things along. The main colour in these paintings was "neutral tint" for those who care, LOL. The first image is based on the sunset theme..

I was quite pleased with this and surprised myself because I only used a 1 inch flat brush for the whole work. I did use a toothpick to scratch out some minor details in the forground "tree" shapes. As you might be able to see, I used lots of water on the paper before starting to paint. A larger version of the painting can be seen on my Flickr photostream, I called it "Surreal Sunset", there is just something about those cloud shapes. I do wish that I had put a cloud across the moon, but it was added as an afterthought. Note to myself - planning is good!

The next painting, was also wet-into-wet using the same colours, but apart from getting a very good impression of rain.... I am not so happy with this piece.

Mmmm, the rain effect does not really show up in this photo - maybe the flash, washing detail out. However I called it "Rain over a moorland path".

My wife and I ( sounds regal) have just spent a weekend in the Cotswolds and I visited an art gallery in Winchcombe called Winds Of Change and came across a print making technique called collography ( see for details ) and the more I see and read about it the more I am determined to have a go at this technique. I may not have the right materials or equipment but I will be experimenting with what i have over the next few weeks to see what I can do. I will of course be posting my results on here wether they turn out works of art or failures. that is what this blog is really all about, the trials and tribulations of a leisure artist. So watch this space and see what a mess I can make of this new (for me) project.

As an afterthough, here is a photo of that sunset:-