Lesson 66 Calla Lilies - Negative Painting

This lesson was inspired by a project in Karlyn Holman's book, Watercolor - the Spirit of Spontaneity. The idea was to begin with a wet in wet underpainting and to superimpose flower shapes. We tried actually cutting out calla lily shapes and positioning them on the underpainting. We traced around these shapes and painted the background in darker to define the flowers. Here are a few of the results:

Kazuyo painted around her shapes with washes that matched the underpainting so that her flowers almost appear transparent.

Karen painted her background much darker but the initial painting still shows in the flowers.

Emily's flowers have an ethereal feel.

Lavonne began with a textured background and warm colors.

Workshop Day 2

Here are a couple images from the second day of the workshop. Kathy's painting is done on canvas and Martha's on paper - both sealed with gesso. I love the way the two have such different styles even though they began with the same reference material.

Weekend Workshop - Gesso

This two day workshop was designed to explore painting on either paper or canvas which had been primed with gesso. The surface handles differently than traditional watercolor paper but allows for experimentation as one paints. Our exercises the first day involved lifting shapes out of a textured background.
Here is an example of shapes lifted out of a wet-in-wet wash.


And here are a couple of more polished floral studies done by lifting out without any preliminary drawing.

Lesson 65 Painting with a Moon

One can find lots of horrible paintings and photographs where the artist tries to incorporate a moon in the work. The moon can be so eye catching that it is important to consider carefully the moon's size and position in relation to other shapes in the painting to create balance. Another possibility is to keep the moon subtle so that it is only found secondarily in the painting. Our goal in this exercise was to come up with a pleasing composition which included a moon.


MaryAnn found a bold design where a large moon is balanced by a bird shape. She washed over the upper portion of the moon to modify the circle shape.


Herching worked with a Yosemite subject where the moon was kept subtle and the focus is on the waterfall.


In Kazuyo's piece the moon is balanced by the amorphous light shape.


Rita created a design where the moon and it's reflection is balanced by the boat.

Lesson 64 Masa Paper

This lesson revolved around techniques popularized by Cheng-Khee Chee using Masa paper. This rice paper has sizing on one side which can be broken by crumpling and wadding the paper. When it is painted on paint collects in the cracks giving the painting a batik effect. This works particularly well in depictions of foliage and winter trees. Here are a few of the paintings from the class.

The crinkle texture in Karen's painting became rocks and evergreens.


Denise left a lot more light areas with the texture suggesting misty trees.

Marilyn sketched in her figures in waterproof ink before she started and worked the path scene around them.

Carol developed a large foreground tree and rich hills and grassy areas.