Sunday, April 16, 2017

Happy Easter! I'm in the Midst of an Experiment!

First of all, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Easter!  Then, I'd like to tell you about my experiment.  I'm playing with ideas from Nita Engle's book.  I took a piece of Arches 140 lb cold press that was already stretched on a board, lightly sprayed it with water from my spray bottle (leaving a lot of dry areas), and squirted (from a squirt bottle with a needle tip) ultramarine mixed with water to about the consistency of whole milk in lines like waves across the paper.  Then I sprayed with more plain water.  Nita explains this better in her book, but the effect is white caps on water.  (I didn't get the exact effect, but I was still excited.)  I made a great big mess and had so much fun!  I showed Jim, but I don't think he thought it was quite as exciting as I did:)  He's a good sport, though!  Anyhow, I'm going to continue playing with this.  I think it will take a while for me to get the feel of it, but it's a cool, loose way to start a painting.  No photos yet - I want to play a little more before taking photos.

2 comments:

Chris Lally said...

Happy (belated) Easter, Candy!
I remember that experiment from Nita's workshop. At the workshop, though, Nita had us using illustration board to do it. The good thing about illustration board is that you can repeat the process several times on the same piece of illustration board. There does come a time, unfortunately, where it will not accept any more paint or water & it's hard to predict when that happens. Nita's experiments were so beautiful - ours were big messes the first few times, but I don't remember anyone not having a smile on their face.
Nita told us to tape the sides of the illustration board so the water doesn't separate the layers.
Hope I'm not being too "helpful." I just remember that was probably one of the most exciting workshops I have ever taken.

Candy said...

I always love hearing from you Chris! Help as much as you like! Yes, in the book she says to use illustration board, but I didn't have any and I had paper all ready to go. (I try to be patient, but it doesn't always work:)) I'll have to try it on the illustration board. It is such fun!