For Artists Who Love the Outdoors

About six and a half years ago, I began painting on alternative surfaces with watercolor. Up to that point I had, like most watercolorists, painted on various weights of paper. When I discovered Fredrix watercolor canvas I was very excited. Here was a surface which I could paint on, spray with acrylics and frame without glass. It had so many advantages to painting on paper that I couldn't believe it. The biggest advantage was that the colors which I used showed exactly as I had intended; watercolorists all know that as the paint dries, the color fades. Normally we have to compensate for this, but painting on canvas allowed the colors I selected to show through. 

There are numerous other advantages, all having to do with not using a glass or plexiglass covering:

- no glare or distortions. The painting was set in its frame like an oil or acrylic would be.

- an immediacy to the artwork. Patrons don't have anything between the painting and them.

- weight. Glass is heavy. Carrying a dozen or more paintings into a gallery or show is work!

- fragility. Glass is easily breakable and in more than one show I've been in, someone's work has   been damaged when the glass broke.

Two years ago I discovered two additional surfaces, aquabord and gessobord by Ampersand. Both of them work extremely well with watercolor and have led me into new directions with my work. I find both aquabord and gessobord to work very well for painting en plein air, and continue to alternate with them, according to the subject and my preferences on that day. Each alternative is different, and as you can see from the included paintings, all three provide me with a range of possibilities which make watercolors sing!

I offer workshops on each of these surfaces on occasion and will post an upcoming sessions on my Events page. Maybe I'll see you at one of them; I'll look forward to it.