Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Violets


mixed media collage, 8x10 inches

Yesterday I should have spent most of my time resolving the issues that have arisen with a watercolor.  I revisited a photo I took years ago of a basket of peppers, thinking that the Yupo surface would be ideal for the shiny surface of the peppers.  But along the way I somehow went wrong, and working on it wasn't solving problems, merely causing new ones.  So I set the watercolor aside and tried something else. 

This violet collage was an exercise in composition and colors.  I wanted a cruciform shape, and I wanted to have violet as the base color.  It started with watercolor on Canson paper, then I added at pastel, acrylic, and cut or torn paper.  My scanner created a strange and funky interpretation of the actual colors, which are a little duller than this.  But no matter how I fiddled, I couldn't get it just right.  This image is cropped a bit.  So - today I need to get back to the peppers and see what I can do.  Enough procrastinating.

I'm also looking forward to meeting with a local watercolor group this afternoon.  They plan to work on watercolor canvas, a surface I have never used.  Have any of you worked on watercolor canvas?  

2 comments:

Ann said...

I love this collage!
I know scanners sometimes do strange things to colors, and it is frustrating.

laura said...

The collage is wonderful--I like the concentration of colors in the center and the repetition of the little squares.
I've never tried watercolor canvas. I'll be curious to hear what you think of it.