Catching the Wind
Watercolor on acrylic on illustration board, 15 X 20.
It's time again to put forth a painting for our annual Regatta show at Cape Coral Art League. I'm continuing to try to do something experimental with my work. I don't want to do the "same old, same old" but push the boundaries of the conventional rendering of sailboats. I coated my board with gesso and used molding paste for some texture in the bottom third of my painting. This dried completely. Next I put in my blue sky and water background. After that dried I was able to carve out the sail shapes with a damp brush back to the white of the gesso. I continued with the darker boat shapes. I went back into the sails to create the contour with shadows and added people shapes. Finally, I carved out the small sailboat in the distance. This painting went surprisingly quickly because of the gesso underpainting. It allows me to make corrections as I go along simply by wiping out and adding paint.
I think it is important to stretch oneself and come up with new ideas from time to time. It makes us grow as artists. Your technique is interesting. Must try the gesso idea. Thanks for sharing. It made a lovely watercolor.
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