This painting was the result of a watercolour challenge proposed by Cathie Van Der Stel from the Hangar Art Centre . You can find the original photograph and the different interpretation on the French Riviera Art Facebook page.
Transparency and water movement are always tricky and I decided to tackle both without the help of masking fluid to reserve the whites : the technique consists of leaving the white from the paper and paint around it.
Yes it is water but not rain falling onto a statue of an angel…We have had so much rain recently that the sight of a cool fountain is something we can appreciate only now with warm sunshine.At last real Summer has arrived on the Côte d’Azur and we can think of water as a refreshing sight !
Stormy semi-abstract landscape with a lot of vertical and horizontal lines. I used masking tape to obtain the crisp aspect of the design. I usually do representational paintings but this one was an experiment and the result is to my liking. I will try again this technique with the appearance of lines and strong contrats.
These narcissus starting to appear everywhere in the garden and are the sign of early spring. I love the challenge of painting white flowers as it is always recommended to leave as much white as possible from the paper. Painting the “colour” white with watercolours means not painting at all….
This oyster was created from a painting of an old piece of wood. I was invited by an artist friend to a painting class which took place in a very beautiful Hampshire (UK) village in the countryside.
The theme of the morning was to paint a piece of wood placed on a table in the middle of the room and every artist present could choose in which medium to paint the proposed still life. I chose watercolours.At the end of the session, I had a good look at the result and liked the colours but not the overall painting.I turned it upside down and suddenly I could see the shape of an oyster appearing… That was it …several hours later the oyster and its pearl were replacing the not so inspiring chunk of wood !
A bit of sunshine in the middle of Winter with watercolours and crayons.
Dragonflies start to grow in water and then move into the air and fly. I like very much the symbolism of this insect .It represents metamorphosis and transformation. It could symbolise changes needed in our life in order to reach our full potential. On the more mundane level, I used watercolours and inks to achieve the shimmering aspect on the wings and body. The change here is about using mixed media and not just watercolour…the start of a new adventure.
Soon people will start to hang beautiful wreaths outside their entrance door to welcome the advent season. Time for me to do the same by painting one.
I liked particularly the colours of this Autumnal wreath taken from a reference photo and chose to use them plus a bit of crimson to paint the wood panel behind. I put some gesso onto the watercolour paper to obtain the wood grain effect and applied several layers of watercolour washes . I originally thought of putting in the middle something Christmassy like a snowman but after second thoughts, the contrast of the sleek leaves with the grainy wood looked interesting enough and it would have been to heavy to add something else. So here you are …. a simple wreath of golden leaves on a wood panel.
Blue flowers in a green and red fantasy background using positive and negative painting technique.
I had great fun painting this semi abstract mixture of Autumn leaves. I used a lot the negative painting technique. Marina from the Hangar Art Centre gave me one of the pictures she had to work on. Autumn leaves was the theme of the day. I started with an outline of some of the leaves and then I just made up the others without planning… The end result is completely different from the picture..and I hope you like it !
Hobby Sketcher 