Sara Mathewson

When I began my painting in the “whimsy” category titled “Fish Tales”, I thought I was beginning a floral painting. I was going through a fabulous watercolor instruction book titled “Watercolor-Pour it on!” by Jan Fabian-Wallake. I love this book! I was following one of her demonstrations on how to “Develop an image out of a glazed wash”. I picked analogous colors-green, blue, violet, rose. I wet the paper with a spray bottle making sure it was completely wet. Then I poured the colors one by one across the top of the paper. I then held the paper up over the sink and let the colors follow the water across the paper. I did this a couple of times making sure I left some white spaces. I then looked for any “flower” images. I found none. But, there were fish, several of them just waiting to be brought into the forefront of the painting. I let the painting guide me and I just painted what I saw on the paper. It was a magical experience and I haven’t been able to repeat it. But, I will try. I love this painting. The process felt so pure. It is one of my most popular paintings to date. It brings me much joy. I no longer own the original as I gave it to my Doctor who had been treating me while we lived in Silver City, New Mexico for a winter. I know that he has found much joy in looking at it. And really that is what this painting is all about joy.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Painting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.