Once upon a time, before kids, I painted watercolors. I bought, soaked, stapled, taped and stretched individual sheets of Arches onto a maple board. I painted one image at a time, with loose, juicy washes and frisket for masking and always a liberal dose of salt (it pulls the wet pigment from the paper and leaves wonderful white sparkles.) I loved it and thought I would make my living as a watercolor artist. Now, as I said, this was all before kids and finding a "real job" and life interferred. 16 years later, I haven't painted since. This makes me sad, because I love watercolor. Love it's fluidity and UN-crispness and unpredictability and glowing, translucent colors. By way of
Donna Downey's blog, I was led to
Kal Barteski, who's blog in glorious color and spirit reminded me that I. love. watercolor. Why did I let it drift away? Shame on me for letting 16 years go by without even noticing that I hadn't painted a thing. So last night I drug out my old tacklebox/watercolor box and unearthed a box of Staedtler watercolor crayons. Can't find my palette or brushes, so made do with these. (And I don't mean "made do" as an unfair/negative term, as they are a fantastic, fun, expressive medium all their own. Just meant it was "all I could find" at the moment.) What happened is 16 years of "it's been too long" and "i don't know what I'm doing" popped into my head and I froze. I sounded like my 8 year old when she's bored, "but what should I draaawwwwwwww...?" So I resorted to
"the pear" that, thanks to
Donna and Kal, seems to be a VERY popular fruit/subject lately, LOL. Love how it came out though, and more importantly, love how it made me feel. Think I'll be heading to the craft store for some fresh new watercolors and brushes!
Also made another little album for a friend's baby shower (she knows it is a boy). A fold-out page for each month's photo (up to 1 year) and lots of space inside the fold-outs for journaling. Again, used Lain's basic formula, although this one is a bit larger to hold 4x6 pics.