Getting back into painting has been more difficult than I had expected, however, a new issue of Watercolor Artist Magazine arrived yesterday full of fun ideas mixing different media with watercolor. In a way, it was just the "permission" I needed to experiment with a painting I was attempting to rescue. Working in watercolor can be quite restrictive, especially if one is a purist with the medium. Nearly all of my education with regard to watercolor has been from that purist perspective. But here artists are combining pure pigment dust particles with water in their watercolors! Others are using pastel sticks almost in equal measure with watercolors! What a liberating issue this is turning out to be!
On my easel, Rockview Farm in the snow has rested for several weeks. I was at an impasse as I had actually started this painting back in December, but then put it away when surgery arrived. Once I could paint again, I realized that the masking fluid that I had used to preserve the white snow had dried and firmly adhered itself permanently to the paper! So the painting sat, begun but frozen in time/space while I debated throwing it out or turning the paper over to begin a new work.
But then the magazine arrive, and I immediately got out some white acrylic paint, my colored pencils, my ultra-fine-line markers, along with the watercolors and went to town. It's certainly not my best painting ever! but it gives me the freedom to paint what I want HOW I want, using whatever media and/or tools I choose to achieve my goal. I'll make many mistakes along the way as I explore blending mediums in my work, but I'll be having a great time. And having fun is what being an artist is really all about!
