The other day I started on a new piece. I was looking through some papers I have thinking that I may do a collage. I found a piece of white paper that has a fan like design. I don’t remember the names of these art papers, but this one is fan like and sort of feathery. Lots of holes etc. So, I glued it onto a piece of 300# Arches CP watercolor paper. I then thought I would paint some more tulips. I looked at it some more and decided lilies would be a better flower to paint. Plus, it has been a while since I have painted lilies and I really love to paint them. Especially the Stargazer lilies or varieties like that. So, I took out some photos I had taken years ago of some lilies that I had purchased and drew on the paper in pencil. This paper is very delicate, so I had to be careful when erasing lines to not rip it. I wanted to see how this paper would look with a watercolor. And I thought it would be fun to begin with the background. Well… it was interesting. I’m pretty sure there is no sizing in this paper, so the color spreads quickly. It was near impossible to control which made it kind of fun. I was able to just abandon all thought of control and go for a much looser, abstract of lilies. When I had finished the background and painted the lilies I realized that it wasn’t really working as a watercolor so I decided to get out the acrylics and have a go at it. I had so much fun painting it really thick. I painted the white right out of the tube, mixing on the paper with the pinks. Lots of fun. I re-did the background too after painting the flowers. Still the same colors,(I mixed a rosey gray), and made it very thin so there is still some of the papers texture showing through. The end result is a painting with lots and lots of texture. It is more impressionistic than anything else. This was the first time that I have painted flowers with acrylics and I gotta say I loved it! I’m thinking I may want to try oils at some point too. What I loved about the acrylics was how quickly they dried. Remember I live in Southern New Mexico and it is very dry here). I could see where the fast drying could be a curse though. I did use some extender in parts of it and some water as well. Generally I had enough time to work with it, and it was such a fun and interesting learning experience as to how the paint works and the different brushstrokes to use for the various effects. Overall it was a wonderful, textural experience.
