I am trying to do something every morning, a quick sketch from a photo I took, or something that catches my fancy. It’s not easy and most of the time I am disappointed by what occurs. The reason? It seems that often the only way to save something is to add lines! I wonder if I will ever produce a “real” painting that is more than just sketch . . . Ah, well. The point is to do something as often as possible.
Thus, a sketch of a Fremontia, a yellow-flowered bush found here in California. It’s a woody shrub that splotches bright flowers against dark leaves. I look forward to them every spring.
I went out looking for spring wildflowers this weekend and took a number of photographs. Everywhere were blooms – wildflowers and domestic ones, all in the local botanical garden. Hummingbird sage is one of my favorites. I didn’t catch the fuschia-pink of the flower, nor the softness, but the shape worked out fairly well.
I started a weekly Friday afternoon watercolor class yesterday. The assignment was based on a negative painting by Rick Surowicz, who does amazing work. You can find him on YouTube and on Facebook. This is the video from which this painting is a derivative.
A few things . . . first, I didn’t have any frisket / masking fluid in class. I had barely anything! All my stuff – most of my stuff – is still packed up from the house repairs. I ransacked a bit and found some things. Like tape – so I used tape to mask off some areas inside the painting. Second, I used student-grade paper, and some of the paper’s surface came off when I removed the tape. I think you can see the areas if you look closely.
The way I see it, the whole point of this exercise is to work on negative painting. Exact replication of Surowicz’s painting is not the point – the point is to learn from it. I struggle with negative painting, but learning to just let go of things when I paint and let things happen, while hard, is something I am finally beginning to do. To quote the Beatles, “let it be, let it be”!
The painting was, to a point, successful. I did some negative painting. I wanted to work with complementary colors and washes, but try to control a bit, such as the leaf shapes, here and there.
Now that it is done, the real question is which end is up? Click on the first image to move through all four versions.
I think I like this one the best (fourth in the series). It’s below. Maybe it expresses the wind and whirling leaves and branches and twigs.
The studio is finally sort of back together. It was torn apart for flooring installation. Putting it back is slow – I didn’t realize how much stuff I had packed away in it, and how little I want to put back into it other than painting supplies, photography equipment, and books. It’s not gonna be easy.
So what! When in doubt, paint! And poppies are the best in a California spring!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 