playing with watercolours

all images copyright Vivien Blackburn



Today I felt like a break from the big canvasses and a 'play' with watercolour and flowers. The weather isn't good so I looked at my sketchbooks and worked in watercolour from sketches I'd done some time ago. I was in the mood for the lovely way that watercolour bleeds and flows, which is very much the way I started on the big seascapes.







I hadn't done much watercolour painting lately and I really enjoyed it :)


The first image is based loosely on a mixed media/collage painting which you can see here http://www.vivienblackburn.com/flowers.html - interpreting it in a different medium exploits another range of marks and possibilities. All of these images incorporate a little coloured pencil.



The third is from a sketch of an oriental poppy I did in a friends garden - I did a large mixed media version of it some time ago so the image may seem familiar.






I used a Chinese brush, bamboo pen (to pull out lines of wet paint and to scratch through wet paint, making darker marks), watercolours, a little coloured pencil and my solitary watercolour pencil in a deep blue, to draw through wet paint and to scrape little flecks to drop in the damp washes to create those little speckles.



Because I was only experimenting and not setting out to do a finished painting, they are simply on cartridge paper from a sketchbook and not on good watercolour paper.


I must do more watercolours, it's reminded me just how lovely they are to use :)

Comments

Lindsay said…
One of the things I like best about your paintings is your boldness. I certainly hope this quality is contagous. These are beautiful
vivien said…
oh thanks Lindsay - :)
Anita said…
I agree with Lindsay but also its the freshness of your work that I really like - its so refreshing and totally delicious - like a really good dessert!
vivien said…
what a lovely thing to say :) thank you!

I hope it isn't toooo hot in the sand dunes - it's freezing here! summer forgot to arrive :(
Robyn Sinclair said…
Vivien at Play is pretty stunning, if you ask me :)

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