Click to enlargeLast week I tried my hand at an interesting painting technique using watercolour on collaged mountboard. I'm aware that my compostion isn't great with that tree being a bit too central on the page, but the exercise was essentially about creating texture here! I applied tissue paper to the board with acrylic medium and this delicate paper crinkled up to give a wonderfully textured surface. When it was dry, I covered the whole with gesso, using a bristle brush for even more texture. The resulting surface was pretty slippery to work on - the watercolour paint slid and dribbled into the ridges and furrows and generally flowed where it pleased! Despite that it was fairly easy to manipulate and even simpler to lift off unwanted areas of colour. Very exciting effects can be created with this method which is great when you want to loosen up a little! You'll need to enlarge the photo to see the textures properly!
I'm also posting this lovely award I received from Cathy of
One Pink Goose. This is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world. I'm very honoured to recieve it - thanks Cathy. Be sure to visit Cathy's
blog - every week she showcases a handful of wonderful artists as well as her own beautifully stylised illustrations. You'll be so inspired! As I'm a little late in posting this and have noticed the award has been doing the rounds of a few friends' blogs this week, I thinka number of you will already have received it too, so I will pass this on to all of you instead of singling out just a few! Have a good weekend!
Click to enlarge
Caroline - what can I say... I love it. What a wonderful effect - just right for the subject matter too.
ReplyDeleteThat's lovely you are very clever, you could almost walk through there.
ReplyDeletewow what a great piece of art, and a well deserved award too.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your tree smack in the middle. It's perfect and feels big and vibrant. What a cool technique...
ReplyDeleteOMG! OMG! You have no idea how you drive me crazy with your watercolors. If I were a man, I'd marry you. Of course that would be so selfish. I will love you first of course. Anyway, it's not going to happen because I am not a man, but you know what I mean. I am so beside myself every time I see one of your watercolors. AAAAAAWWWWW! OMG! YES!
ReplyDeleteI am mesmerized by this technique you used, by your painting. I am trying to decern what is the tissue paper and what the paint? As the texture in the lower foreground especially is so REAL looking...did you use a sharp edged card perhaps to slice lines in? I am intriqued. Since I never went to art school I have never been taught not to center things and therefore I appreciate art that has objects like your tree centered at times. I think this works, especially with all the other lighter trees surrounding it in the background. I find this painting to be truly amazingly wonderful in all ways.
ReplyDeletePS I see moss growing in the foreground on the tree trunk down low. Just amazing.
ReplyDeleteTHis is brilliant. It is one of those paintings that the artist cringes because I can't keep my hands off of it. I love the rocks at the base of the tree, the moss and of course the trees.
ReplyDeleteNow I know why I almost had a seizure when I came here. You painted a tree! OMG! It is so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI would love to sit there just under your tree and savour the moment.
ReplyDeletecaroline, this is brilliant! I didn't even notice the tree was in the middle because the whole painting has so much life and movement. The boulders take us to the left and the branches bring our eyes back around to the whole thing again.
ReplyDeleteI adore this!! I wish I was watching you as you painted this. (Not in a creepy way, like stalking you!) But in a learning capacity :)
OMG! I love this! I did enlarge and I was sure this was oil and not watercolor. I love how it turned out. I think the big tree looks great there. I have to try this technique sometime. So fun.
ReplyDeleteI also love all your photos of Australia. How lucky you are to got there. I've always wanted to see that country. Thank you for bringing it a little closer to me.
I absolutely LOVE the texture--and the brilliant colors--and the big tree in the middle--and...oh my, this is wonderful. I'm going to have to try this technique.
ReplyDeleteI am not even going to try this, I just want a print of this. So how can I purchase one? Is your Etsy store still open?
ReplyDeleteIt is! Please make this available. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI like that technique, the texture is wonderful
ReplyDeleteit is beautiful, a litle farie tale alike
ReplyDeleteAmazing!!!! what you can do with watercolor!!!!
ReplyDeleteI love this, and so the tree is in the middle, I like that!
Have a nice Sunday!
Groetjes!
>M<
Wow! This is fantastic Caroline, I am in love with all the techniques that you taught.
ReplyDeleteI am going to try this technique for sure, if only I find time to do so:)
WHOA. Are you outta your mind? What do you mean the composition isn't that great?! Of course, I immediately had to enlarge this, and I was just wowed by it. I was wondering how you got such a neat effect, and then lo and behold, you revealed all your secrets right there! It's really marvelous. I thought it looked a bit like looking through a window that had frosted over in the night. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteOh yes! In all my excitement, I forgot to say Congratulations on the well deserved award!
ReplyDeletecaroline, it's the background that gets me. it is so soft and mysterious and hinting. and then the depth of the moss. what i think is amazing about you is that you create your OWN mediums. you don't just paint. you rip those tissues (i can just see you!) and go at it.
ReplyDeletei'm standing behind lolo dying to watch you. are you impulsive, methodical, organized, messy?
i am just back from vacation and i'm not yet ready to visit my favorite blogs and leave comments, but here i am.
you are something else, my friend.
gallery, gallery, gallery.
love
kj
Oh gosh, I could use that technique but mine would look nothing...oh nothing...like yours. It's fabulous!
ReplyDeleteps...I have a little momento to darling Renee over at my place if you'd like to visit...
absolutely gorgeous!!! love this technique, wish you could do a little visual tutorial :D
ReplyDeleteReally lovely painting. Love the technique!
ReplyDeleteThat tree is gorgeous Caroline. You certainly have picked up the knack with that particular technique. The Sunshine Award is very popular. I have seen it on so many blogs recently...lol.
ReplyDeleteWOW Caroline, this is just remarkable. I love it! Well deserved award for sure!
ReplyDeleteOh noooo, not you, too! Did you really pull your back?! Get well soon. Or you know, milk it for all it's worth and use it as an excuse not to do housework. I did. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is gorgeous Caroline... I love the technique you used!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous! I love this...wow. I've missed your work..sorry to have been out of touch...hope you've been well, Caroline! Someday I will try this technique - you are amazing!
ReplyDeleteThere's a wonderful feel to the tree painting, particularly in the mossy foreground area.
ReplyDeleteI thinks it's beautiful. Congrats on the award!
ReplyDeletecaroline, you calling me a dark horse is as good as winning a beauty contest. or a special award.
ReplyDeletei came here to say thank you and got to see this fantastic watercolor happy proud tree again.
lucky me.
love love
kj
Wow Caroline, WOW!!! I'm late to the party, but better late than never! This is absolutely stunning! Thanks so much for explaining your technique as that is the first thing I wondered before reading - How did she DO that?! I can't believe how critical we are of ourselves, the composition is great! Again, I just love this, and congrats on the award too! It's so funny that this post and my post from yesterday are kinda similar. Have a great week, Susan
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty amazing, Caroline! Fantastic texture and I think it's a lovely composition: beautiful, powerful tree, great background and colors. Just fantastic!
ReplyDeleteback again to bask in that tree and these woods. if you make prints i want one except i want almost everything you do. i am a fan you know, not just a dime a dozen heart sister friend. :)
ReplyDeletethe word verf is vulog. what the heck does that mean, caroline? :)
take care! pamper and indulge.
love
kj
I love it. I think the composition is perfect!
ReplyDeleteLovely tree and congrats on the award :)
ReplyDelete