On the Easel

I am working on Trillium cards to send to Pat and Sarah, the two friends who walked with me the day Garbry Sanctuary was filled with trillium. The Lone Pine is from a photo I took along the Blue Ridge Parkway last October. The Soft Homemade Doll is one my mother made.

I have the doll set up as a still life but you can see I have a photo also. That is because I started the painting at a friend's house. It is easier to carry a photo than a still life. The first photo came out redder than the painting actually is. The second one is bluer. If you can imagine the skirt of the first photo on the second photo you have imagined the painting close to what it actually looks. The yellow on the lace is masking fluid which protects the white under it. After I have painted the other details of the lace, I will rub the mask off.  It is a bit like rubber cement. I have played with the color adjustments on the computer but haven't found truer colors. The painting as it appears on the easel is closest to the true colors.

I usually work on several watercolors at the same time. I paint on one painting until I have to wait for it to dry. Then I work on another painting. I know I could blowdry the painting but I have found I like to take time to think about my paintings as I go. Other times I work on one painting until I am not sure what I want to do next so I paint a while on another painting.

Sometimes life is so busy I don't paint for several days. I write notes on Post-its to remind myself of what I want to do next. The easel is placed so I see it every time I go down the basement stairs to put clothes in the washer or in the dryer or get something out of the freezer. I stand on a step that is about half way down and just look at my paintings. 

You may notice that I have a mat laid around the Lone Pine.  Sometimes I get ideas for further painting by isolating sections.