It's been one of those weeks, quiet. As many of you know I live with chronic pain from Fibromyalgia, there are days, weeks that many of the trigger points flare and despite all my efforts it takes me down for the count, then toss in a few migraines and life just comes to a stop. I hate talking about it, hate giving into it, hate surrendering my life to it's grip. I find joy anywhere I can, joy fuels my spirit, gives me something to fight the pain with, and life has many joyous moments. Like the splay of colour flooding the hillside, dancing off the water and reflecting it's life back to me. So in those moments I splash colour across my page, texturing because life is never flat or smooth, it has depth and nuances of tone and hue that I want to capture.
I've been reading and drooling over Karlyn Holman's book Watercolor Without Boundaries. She has a stunning talent and I take tiny little pieces of her methods to adapt for my abstracts. Although I've used tissue paper extensively, I've never done as she suggested, take tissue paper, lay it on plastic and paint in your various colours let it dry and then collage the pieces into an underpainting your created. (she used it more in realistic paintings but I adapted) Because I work in abstracts to create even more texture I laid my tissue paper on wax paper and then painted it. When it dried and I lifted it from the wax paper is created these wonderful rich, alternating tones.
These are just snippets from the 18X24 watercolour paper, my camera just won't pick up the amazing reds and golds when I take a full frame shot.
