Splashing Around in Spring

I was recently inspired by some floral watercolor paintings I spotted on Instagram. Pamela Harnois does these lovely, quick, colorful floral paintings, a skill that she's mastered over a lifetime of painting, I have no doubt. I won't denigrate her work with any comparison to these little paintings of mine, of course, since what I'm doing here is utterly different--the scale alone, if nothing else. But I found her use of saturated colors and loose approach to the image very appealing, so I decided to give it a go and splash around in watercolor again for a change. It's spring, after all, and I want flowers everywhere!

I used some medium weight watercolor paper for the first two, Arches 180 lb. cold press, which has a nice texture and absorbs water politely. I didn't copy any of Harnois's images, of course, but made up my own spontaneously, using colors that appealed to me. I enjoyed spattering some paint across the paper, as she does, adding some energy to the piece. This kind of painting is about taking risks and playing, not safely making a sure thing. 

At Harnois's urging, I used rich colors, knowing that when they dry watercolors become paler. For instance, using a brush loaded with yellow-orange, I dropped the color into the wet stems, boldly flavoring the blue-greens, arriving at a blush of orange at the extremities.

And like her I added some loose gestural strokes of pencil where needed--even while the paint was damp! 

 

 

 

Enjoying the process, I further experimented with Bristol Smooth paper, which is hard, crisp, with hardly any absorption. The paint puddles on the paper. I used the same loose fast strokes, rich color, and spattering technique. 

At the end of the day I decided this would be a fun series. I can reinvigorate my enthusiasm any time by watching the many videos that Harnois has available (@pamelaharnoisart) and return to a favorite subject any time I need to splash around in spring.