watching paint dry

 

It's been a while since I took out my watercolor paints and paper.

My friend Sonja in Hawaii sent me this enticing video, which caused me to want to paint again

So there was no pressure, I tore up one sheet of watercolor paper, got out two paint sets, a big fluffy #8 round brush, water and a paper towel. 

I apparently forgot my patience because you need to let the first pale petals dry before painting over them, so I got more blending than I like. 

I was very critical of them, until the next day. Then I took some pics and cropped them... I am always surprised at the value of cropping. Changing the visual focus in a picture, changes the amount of negative space, and moves the focus to one part of an image. 

for my quilt making friends, it's a difference between appliqueing a whole flower, or engaging the borders which allows the viewer to complete the picture in their minds. 

Imagine painting/appliqueing a woman holding a flower in her hand, complete and near the center of the quilt. Then imagine moving the focus to just a portion of her arm, her hand and the flower. 

the viewer now wonders who is holding that flower, maybe imagining herself holding it. Making an instant story in their mind's eye. They now become part of the experience. 

In a painting like quilted art, the border becomes integral. Ask yourself if you want to contain your painting or if it's better when there is no "fence" or finish, or separation from the viewer. Many quilters now do not add a binding, which is a final covering of the edge of a quilt. They pull the scene to the back of the piece so the viewer sees the cropped image continuing on. 

After cropping these in photo form, I decided to do a cross over art project, by printing the photo of my painting onto fabric

we found out the latest computer update messed up the printer causing it to print in black and white. We learned after updates to windows one needs to uninstall the printer, and re install it. Grrrrrrr. 

I use these sheets of fabric, with a coating on them to make permanent the printed image. They have paper on the reverse side to allow the fabric to go easily through the printer. (Amazon) 

I think the color came out beautifully on the color print, and after recovering from my hissy fit at "wasting" a sheet of fabric on the black and white... decided it may be an interesting quilted art piece...

the color was very saturated so the image is dark but... you still get an exciting effect. Lights and darks even in a black and white image... I thought how will it look when sewn into other fabrics

 this fabric scrap was on the design wall to be pieced into the flying geese in progress.

auditioning possible fabric choices to complete the design

Very pretty.... and interesting. Will I keep the white border? 

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