Sun Bathers

Today was the first day of a Don Andrews workshop I'm taking at the Cape Coral Art League. Today's demo and lecture was all about capturing the light. Watercolorists know that the light has to be saved, protected and preserved. Don talked about how much to save and where to save it. Don explained that photos often have light scattered everywhere, the artist is to select the light areas that will make an interesting painting. He painted a beautiful Guatemala street scene with light reflecting off the buildings. Everyone was to use either their own picture or one of his to plan and execute a painting where the light areas were planned and preserved. I choose a picture that I took in the Florida Keys a few years ago. As a painting I think it's mediocre but I did manage to plan and preserve the light area. I think I'll be doing this scene again, all it takes is practice, practice, practice!

Dragon Dance

I did this painting on Yupo with liquid inks. When I want to play around with color and see what happens, this is what I do. I try to choose a limited palette, in this case red, orange, yellow with just a touch of turquoise. I float water on top of the Yupo and then drop the inks on top and watch them mingle and run. I start sopping up some of the places that get too muddy and spray other places that are drying too fast. I noticed that the Bounty towels left really neat grid designs but the painting was so wet that eventually the designs filled in. I'm determined to find just the right wetness so that the grids will stay imprinted in the painting.
The swirls of bright colors reminds me of the Dragon Dance I saw at the Chinese Pavilion at Epcot several years ago. I've titled it but I haven't signed it yet. I'm thinking I may add some darker areas. I'm experimenting by putting a sheet of acrylic on it and painting on that before putting paint on the painting itself. If I decide to add, I'll post it again.