Wonderful Watercolours

Golden Artist Colors Inc., a company well-known for their acrylic paints, have produced a range of "modern" watercolours called QoR -  pronounced "core". The binder in these paints is different from other watercolours, and according to the company, it gives colour greater intensity and clarity. They offer a large range of colours, including three iridescents.

Four colour sets are available. Three have six colours and one has twelve, and are a good introduction to the watercolours.  I purchased the "High Chroma" set of six, which included Cobalt Teal, Green Gold, Quinacridone Gold, Transparent Pyrrole Orange, Quinacridone Magenta, and Dioxazine Purple. They are presented in the paint box below, which can serve as a small palette. The tubes are 5ml and unfortunately paint tended to ooze out of some of the tubes when opened.

I utilized my new paints on two impressionistic woodland scenes on terraskin.

Watercolours on terraskin, as a rule, tend to be more vibrant so it is difficult to asses the brilliance of QoR. What do you think? More later.

Go to My WebSite

Paintings too bad to throw away

Sometimes there are embarrassing paintings - impossible to leave in the garbage, identified as yours!
There are options:

- if on canvas then good old gesso cures all ills
- if paper and watercolour, then a dunk in a sink might remove most if not all and the process can begin again
- if paper and acrylic, good old gesso can come to save the day again or even gesso over watercolour to scrape out colours and images
- if paper, interesting pieces can cut out for a later collage
- if paper, the painting can be cropped to leave a smaller but more interesting composition
- of course, yupo and terraskin allow more flexibility in removing an wiping out images.

This painting is a good example of a rescue of a painting gone wrong. This is acrylic on terraskin, and renovated with the inspiration of a very good teacher, D.D. Gadjanski. See her work at www.ddgadjanski.com/‎  and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/DDGadjanski‎

Lonely Beach

The lightbulb series continued

How many modern artists does it take to change a light bulb?
Four. One to throw bulbs against the wall, one to pile hundreds of them in a heap and spray-paint it orange, one to glue light bulbs to a cocker spaniel, and one to put a bulb in the socket and fill the room with light while all the critics and buyers are watching the fellow smashing the bulbs against the wall, the fellow with the spray-gun, and the cocker spaniel.

Go  to My WebSite

Landscape Memories

Landscape memories are stored and grouped in the subconscious. They appear as seascapes, farmlands, mountains, forests  and moors. They provide inspiration for many paintings. The following two paintings are memorials to travels in Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, Newfoundland and Ontario.

Farmhouse

Bathed in Sunlight

Both paintings used Terraskin as a support. This is a material of which I am growing to appreciate. A word to the wise, however when framing in glass with Terraskin- this material is heavier than watercolour paper and requires additional anchoring to the mat, or slippage can occur.

Acrylic vs. Watercolour

I am often asked which medium I prefer- acrylic or watercolour. My answer is that it depends on what I am painting at the moment. Both are water-based media, but the technique and effects are quite different.
Acrylic paints are very versatile. They can be diluted and used as washes and glazes like watercolour on watercolour paper. They can also be used straight from the tube and applied to canvas and so behave more like oil paints, especially when used in an impasto technique. They dry quickly, which can create problems if brushes are not cleaned immediately. A variety of materials can be applied to the acrylic canvas to  provide texture and to create collages. I find that acrylic provides the freedom to experiment, as you can cover mistakes or change your composition.
Watercolour on the other hand is basically applied to paper, although additional surfaces are becoming available, such as watercolour canvas, clay boards and terraskin.  The painting must proceed in layers and from light to dark. There is a luminous transparent quality to watercolour painting which is impossible to completely duplicate in  acrylic.There is little ability to correct mistakes and that has given watercolour  the reputation of being difficult to master.
I have always been thankful that my first exposure to painting was in a watercolour workshop. I feel it is much easier to move from watercolour to acrylic than the other way around. Since I have been doing more acrylic painting recently, I found it quite a challenge to return to watercolour. I became so frustrated that I repainted over three watercolours in acrylic. Ultimately I  went back to a familiar scene and plodded along. The initial effort, in images one and two, as you can see was a complete failure. Finally things began to click, in images three and four. More watercolour painting needed!!



#1



#2



#3

#4

This process only confirmed my belief that if you use more than one medium, you need to vary your painting techniques in order to maintain the skills unique to each.