I have been known to have flighty weeks every now and again
okay... pretty regularly if I am completely honest
but this week has been all over the place mentally
I haven't been able to settle to any one thing
my brain has been flitting from thought to thought like a hummingbird on roids
I blame the drippy chairs for this sad state of affairs
I have spent all week trying to work out how to scale them up and paint larger versions
without having to do the whole soak and stretch paper to keep it flat
but have been plagued by paper buckles
which could be graded from mild in some cases all the way through to truly mountainous
I could try the old iron and heavy book trick
but I am always scared of doing that and the whole possible burning down the house thing
so I am trying to find just the right combination of paper weight and paint application
these paintings take a lot of moisture to create
and finding the right combination is meaning lots of experimenting
which is never a bad thing, though there has been moments of insane frustration
followed quickly by awesome yowzer moments, followed by more frustration
ahhh the joys the are the rollercoaster of creation right
I could have made my life easier
and used the 640 gr hot pressed paper that I favour for huge watercolours
those suckers take more abuse than any paper known to man
and stay so flat and perfect it is mildly freaky
but for some reason in my brain I decided that it just wasn't white enough
so I have tried creating them with different papers
both stretched and unstretched
thick smooth white paper in 5 different weights and brands,
and even a lighter weight paper... as if that was ever going to bloody work
and finally even had a play on Yupo
but to be honest Yupo sort of does my head in a bit
something about that plastic surface just feels mildly wrong
I even tried different paints
high pigmented ones
normal ones
and finally even the Peerless liquid colours
I even hunted out some inks
and played with different combinations of all of the above
the studio has been looking like some giant threw up paint everywhere
my hands look like I am wearing technicolour gloves
and most of the clothes I have worked in this week
have little dots of colour splattered in lovely outlines
courtesy of my apron just not being up to the task
so these are the closest I have gotten to results that don't make my brain hurt
Of course you know what I am going to do next don't you
yep this morning I have pulled out the 640 gr paper
and it is quite white actually
so I am going to get in and do some on there
which is what I should have done in the first place
but then where would be the fun in that
happy painting all...xx