For Artists Who Love the Outdoors

Last Saturday was forecast to be sunny and warm, so I was down to Fish Creek Park by 8:30. Instead of the east end, I headed for Shannon Terrace at the extreme west end of the park. I'm not as familiar with this side, so I took a bit longer to find a spot to set up, but by 9:00 a.m. I was ready. So were the mosquitos, and I futilely battled them for the whole time I was there. 

Last week I did a very loose impressionistic view of the park with bright paints; this week I went back to a more comfortable style for me, an expressive one, with the half dozen colours I regularly use on my palette, with one addition - Daniel Smith Permanent Orange. I had been using it a lot in a recent studio piece and I really like its optimistic personality. The more I thought of the morning sun pushing its way through the evergreens and poplars by the creek, the more I thought of Permanent Orange. This week I balanced it off with cobalt blue and burnt siena. The concrete bridge abutments  were an onsite inspiration -  aureolin and cobalt blue gave me that concrete off -white I was trying for.

My surface this week is aquabord again. I wanted the bridge to be a central focus, and the light to strike it from above. Either the warm morning shade or the proximity of the creek made my paints loose and slower drying so I was able to push them around more and lift for effect. I often talk about 'carving' a piece, because I use flat brushes, broad strokes and lift to create my light tones. Traditionally, watercolorists reserve their white areas and work out from there. I lift to create my light tones and can continue to do so over most of the painting process. It isn't until I get to the darker, more earth tones or highly staining colours that I need to watch myself. And even then, I can lift a colour back two or three levels with clean water.

I was finished in good time, about 11:00 a.m. and liked the finished piece. I have to admit, though, that when I got it home, I did start to 'tinker' with it and while I managed to correct a couple of  things, I don't feel I improved it at all. I know we all fight this problem all the time - 'tinkering' or 'picking at it' is the bane of every artist's existence. Why do we do it? "Leave it alone; walk away from it." Great advice but how to do it? One good piece of advice is to leave the piece for a day or so before looking at it once it's finished. Or sign it, with a unspoken contract that once a piece is signed, it's done. (And then stick to that as well!) It takes great willpower to leave a piece alone when you've finished. 

I actually have another final action - spraying the signed piece with varnish. I use Krylon Kamar Varnish to seal my  board and canvas pieces when I'm done and there is no going back once I've done that. To be quite honest, it's a step I don't rush because there is no going back. However, this process returns the palette to its original lustre and it's a stage I really look forward to. I get to see the work as finished product and inevitably just as I do, I see one small thing I should have changed. No, too late now...walk away!