Watercolour Experiments and waterbeads continued

Waterbeads 2025-NOW

Creating fabricated landscapes with thread and bead inclusions

Waterbeads is an ongoing investigation using watercolour and various methods of masking the paper to gain various values of layered colour. The use of waxed crayon, waxed paper, masking tape and masing fluid all create different effects. The finished works are loosely related to and reactions of rural landscapes studied while plein air painting in late summer. The seed beads are adding focal points that help to embellish existing colour either in contrast or in support of substrate. They may be construed loosely as far away objects, possibly lights in cell towers, buildings or much closer objects like flowers or tree bark knots. The stitching holds the matting and image together but is also a reference to the notion of acreage segregated by roads or county lines that maps have. When looking at the land from an airplane I have always thought farmland was a quilt this helps to honour that aesthetic. Over all my work is planned in terms of size, materials, method and scope of colour. The Abstract Expressionists reacted to their surface as it changed and in this respect this work is very much of that nature. There is always a loose plan and a colour theory behind the painting. The final outcome is led by the materials and my reaction to how the layers interact with each other. Once the masking has been removed and the painting is deemed “finished” then the beads are applied based on enhancing the story the paint has created. Most works are in a 9×9″ frames  and are priced between  $80-100 .

Watercolour Experiments -2020-NOW (Art Made DURING Covid 19)

COVID  changed all of our lives. This was  a  time to reinvent the world, yours- mine -ours. 

Another aspect of COVID  19 lockdown was looking at – what do I want to explore ? This got me thinking about materials in my own tool kit I have not explored fully. SO I pulled out masking fluid, wax crayons, tape ,  waxed paper  &  played around with how that could be used much like batik, as a resist , to create multilayered  abstract fantasy  landscapes. I used a great German squeeze pen- Schmenke-  with a lovely tip to draw on the surface. I also use a plastic stick to score into the paper to create deep grooves.