I also shared that I needed to paint, not draw because I needed the liquid flow of paint. Words like movement, mixing, liquid, fresh, play, unrestrained, chaos come to mind.
After working with acrylic for a bit, even it seemed a bit too stiff. This is all in hindsight of course. Several of the ladies were painting with watercolor (all over the age of 60 by the way). I was the kid in the crew.
No doubt what they were painting was pretty, but I just couldn't pick a photo of flowers and try to paint it. Again, too restrained, predictable. I wasn't really looking for pretty. My life certainly wasn't pretty at that time. I was grieving in a way I never had and it felt more like mud; not beautiful bright watercolor.
Doris (my art teacher) had what she called "liquid watercolor" as opposed to what you get in tubes. She gave me a couple of abstract art books to look at and some liquid watercolor to try and turned me loose. Believe it or not this is my first attempt at the "pouring" technique.
Don't worry if yours turns out different or not as "nice" in your mind. The reality is even though I like the way it turned out; I see this as beginners luck. Plus I had the teaching guidance from Doris. She was hovering over me most of the time.
This is titled Falls of Love. I had just finished Hannah Hurnard's book "Hinds Feet on High Places" for about the fourth time. I'm going to invite you to go here How Falls of Love got its name for the whole story on why the title. A little mystery : )
Anyway, this is what I did to create this painting:
- I took some watercolor paper and held it upright as best I could. Then I held the bottle of liquid yellow watercolor at the top left of the paper and just poured. I let it run where ever it wanted.
- Then I did the same thing with green only moved over more toward the right when I poured. I let it run down the paper on its merry way. I was feeling a bit merry at that moment too! I let each pour dry before I did the next one.
- Next, I went a few inches down from the top left and poured white. I sprayed some water from a water bottle when I wanted the color to run more when I did all three colors. The paint was a bit thick so this helped it make its way down the paper.
By the way, don't wear clothes or shoes you care about while playing with this technique. Water and paint are unpredictable! Which is what I LOVE about it.
Final Step:
After everything was dry I put a bit of water on a small brush and spread the yellow and green paint a bit to ensure the whole paper was covered. I LOVED it!
The Process:
Honestly, I loved the process as much as I loved the end product. The liquid ~ unpredictable ~ unsafe ~ flowing ~ paint was just what I needed. I played and I had fun.
And for these small periods of time I was oblivious to things like death, suicide, loss, grief, depression and pain. I was free like the paint running mindlessly down the paper. I still love it to this day.
Here is another one just to show you what is possible with liquid paints. Let me clarify here though...this one I actually did by spraying watercolor paint instead of pouring. This will make more sense as you keep reading and look for tomorrow's post for more detail about spraying watercolors.
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This one is nothing special really except for the gorgeous color. And the fun of it! What will I do with it? Who knows? I'm not sure I even titled it. Dripping Pink maybe? Any ideas?
The goal for me is to have fun and be transformed and transported to another place within me where problems go away. This is where the healing begins and continues over time.
Materials:
Falls of Love was on a pretty firm and sturdy watercolor paper. I'm not good at all the weights of paper and stuff. I just buy what feels good to my hands and try it.
Dripping Pink is done on what is called Yupo paper. You can go here if you would like more information on the paper itself. You can follow this link to learn more about Yupo and to purchase http://www.dickblick.com/products/yupo-watercolor-paper/
As far as paint, for these paintings I used liquid watercolors from Robert Doak. You can find his paint here http://www.robertdoakart.com/page/page/5236346.htm. Be prepared....his paint is not cheap. Just a 4 oz. bottle is $25 so I would recommend starting with something cheaper.
But let me say this...there is nothing like Robert Doak paint to get the vibrant color. I haven't found anything else better. So you decide.
If you're just getting started you can even mix your own (though remember it probably won't be the vibrant color so lower your expectations). You can go here to see how to mix your own. http://www.redbubble.com/people/lynnsong/journal/3616074-watercolor-tip-and-technique-2-how-to-mix-your-own-liquid-watercolor-paint. Other companies are coming out with more liquid watercolors too so just look around and you can find some within your price range if you don't want to do your own mixing.
Here is a sample of a painting I did where I mixed my own colors and sprayed watercolor paint. Can you see the difference in the vibrancy of color when I mixed my own versus the Robert Doak? Big difference!
It was also the first painting I did at home BY MYSELF with no guidance from Doris. It has some composition issues but it is still one of my favorites because it was my first flying solo!
And I'm going to keep reminding you...its okay to paint what you think is bad art. I'm probably crazy for putting my first paintings on line for the world to see, but I want to give you permission to just play. So no pressure, just wet paint : )
Whew! I AM going to get to what I am doing now in future posts; but I wanted to give you a background on what I did before and the impact on my life. I will say it and keep saying it....playing with paint saved my life!
So when depressed apply wet paint. That's what I'm doing. We'll paint together and heal together.
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