Christine’s lovely loose echinacea
We started today working wet in wet just enjoying slopping color onto the paper and enjoying the process without any particular result in mind. I wanted us to turn off that loud internal critic and paint for just a few minutes with joy and no judgement.
As Louise Fletcher says :
”The secret to getting results is not worrying about the results”
Ruth, who in her non-painting life is a therapist added that our internal critics think they are protecting us. They provide our armour, so that we don’t expose ourselves. She quoted a wise teacher,
“If I wear armour, I can’t grow or dance.”
I’d never heard that expressed so well.
I think it’s impossible be creative and critical at the same time. That over-protective voice in your head will make sure you don’t run with scissors, but will also want you to wear your galoshes on a sunny summer day, and certainly won’t want you to splash some paint on paper that other people might think is silly, or “not right”.
DO NOT listen to this voice!!
So we started with just washy colour…
Loose free wet-in-wet colours, just for the fun of it
Last week we had done a similar technique, but had created the loose background behind a sketch of white daisies, just leaving the white of the daisies unpainted.
This week, with the background dry, we added a very few dark marks and shadows into the white petals to complete the painting…
Then we reviewed last week’s technique of using the tail end of your brush to create spiky and energetic marks. Last week was cardoons, and this week we started with wet in wet cornflowers (a.k.a. Batchelor buttons).
Cornflowers, painted using the tail end of the brush for spiky-ness
We were “virtually visited” by a guest artist, my friend, Kate Osbourne, who showed us her finger painting of bees…
Kate Osborne’s bees
I’d hoped to add a link, but can’t seem to. just search for Kate Osbourne and Bee’s on you tube and there are several wonderful videos there. She is an amazing artist. SO we watched her, and then gave it a go ourselves, and you all did brilliantly!
Finally, we returned to our first expressive washes.
We used a permanent pen and drew a field of flowers over the top without thinking too much about what was underneath. Everyone’s results were delightful!
A scribbley drawing of echinacea over the colour wash that we made at the beginning of the class
HOMEWORK!
Play with these ideas and techniques without worrying about the outcome.
Enjoy working wet in wet , explore different colour combinations, let them dry, and then draw over the top with permanent ink.
Practice some more bees, try finger-painting, and using the tail end of your brush for antennae and legs.
happy painting and see you next week, with bull rushes, dragon flies and marshy-ness!
Seana