Studio work June 2024

I've been trying to take my watercolours larger. In the April seminar, they were a little larger than A5. I've been doing them successfully in A4 size, which is not a great jump. But have tried A2, so far not too successfully. The A2-size bush scene below is very successful. I'm trying for a horizontal landscape to sit alongside this bush scene. Clicking on any image will open the gallery.

Building on the empty landscape, horizon idea, I completed these two small (among others) successful works over the weekend. Clicking on any image will open the gallery.

They are very small, but in each, I painted with water and dropped pigment into the 'puddle' and let it do its thing, with minimum involvement from me with movement. I like this process. So in the studio this week I will try this process on larger paper.

On the way back across the Hauraki Plains searching for landmarks, I found a Dalgety Road on the edge of the Plains. I find it slightly distasteful, like staking a claim, raising the flag, planting a flag. "“Planting the flag” usually means making a claim to something, usually territory or land. Throughout history men have “planted the flag” claiming ownership in the name of the king, queen, country, church, etc. marking the land as their own." [ https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1088/1 ]

I'm not sure why I find it a little distasteful as I assume the road was given a name due to the Dalgety's (my grandfather) that lived there.

  

Back in the studio again.

And an A4 size work on the Dalgety Road view was a success, after a failure on a larger size.

I'm trying to find a consistent way of working in watercolour that I like. Maybe I don't, maybe it will always be wobbly if I'm going to work wet-on-wet.

A few more days on, and I may have found a process I like and a size of paper I like.

Analysing why I'm not comfortable with either full process painting and landscapes painted too 'nicely'. So I've tried a few paintings where I have painted the scene more traditionally but then used a process of dropping pigment into watered areas on top. These are the results on a size that is approx. 400 x 550mm. At this size the paper stays still, but it's also good Fabriano paper 300gsm cold press. Clicking on any image will open the gallery.

I have sorted a series of different-sized works for the DEMO exhibition opening Thursday - I'm calling this group Dalgety Road.

For the July seminar, I have 2 spaces connected to each other - and thinking about moving around the 'corner' to see another view? The Dalgety's Corner theme.