Matlacha Mangroves
Watercolor on Masa paper, 10 X 14
It's hot, it's rainy, it's summertime in Florida. It's a good time to slow down and take it easy. A time to travel to cooler places and it you can't do that, you stay inside and read, play on the internet and maybe paint a little. I've been doing very little painting but the elephant painting is coming along. I'm taking my time with it and enjoying the process. There is no pressure of a deadline of a show to enter.
I enjoy working on the Masa paper because sometimes the painting just seems to paint itself, especially if you do a landscape. You wet the paper and then crinkle it leaving a little space that's not crinkled; then you smooth it on an absorbent surface like a towel or piece of felt. The next step is to lightly wash over the wrinkled areas with a soft brush and India ink, black, brown or both as I did. It's glued to watercolor paper using a special flour based wallpaper paste and a brayer to get a good adhesion. At this point I let it dry, but you could continue to work on it. I wasn't going for mangroves but that's what appeared when I started to add color.
