Tuesday 19 June 2012

A Splash of Colour

Like lots of other people I have been enjoying the attention given to artist Jean Haines whose recently published book, 'Atmospheric Watercolours', seems to have been particularly popular amongst hobbyists. She is very generous in sharing her techniques with fellow artists and I've no doubt that there are lots of us giving her methods a go to see if we can emulate the vibrant colourful images that she produces. So here we have an image that draws on the ideas that she expresses in her books.

I chose a subject that I'd been meaning to have a go at for some time. It is based on a sketch that I produced on a holiday in Italy. The tower over the Campo in Siena is a tempting subject.


Siena - Watercolour on Rough paper 15"x 11"

12 comments:

Peter Ward said...

The colours are there Mick! I have her new book ( I presume you have from your comments) and will be reviewing it shortly. She seems to be becoming more abstract by the month but trying to emulate her tecnique and compositional ideas is difficult as I'm already seeing. Several failures in the bin!

Linda Roth said...

Now I'm curious about the technique. Looking at your work Mick, it looks like it's a controlled lifting technique. True?

Unknown said...

Peter - Yes I've got the new book and find myself a little torn. I really like much of the work but hesitate over whether getting too close to it it would be creating a clone. Never mind, trying some of the ideas and finding ones that are effective for me seems to be the way to go.

Unknown said...

Linda - Whilst there is some lifting in there the main component of the technique is allowing the pigments to respond to each other on the paper then using ideas like salt addition and plastic film to create texture and interest. This one doesn't use all of those techniques but it's worth looking Jean Haines up on Youtube to get a bit more idea of how she works.

Nora MacPhail said...

Wow, that's a splash of colour all right! It looks fantastic! Your paintings completely loosened up overnight. Looks like you really enjoyed painting this one. Awesome.

Laura said...

Beautiful atmospheric effect. Which is what you were after and achieved. Just love the book too. Very talented lady and yourself too.

Ray Maclachlan Art said...

Great effect Mick, making for a vibrant painting. Thanks for alerting me to Jean Haines.

Unknown said...

Nora - Thanks. It was a lot of fun and for me quite liberating, I've tried a variety of ways of trying to loosen up and this certainly helped.

Unknown said...

Laura - Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments. You are right, it's a great book from a real talent.

Unknown said...

Ray - As always thanks for the interest and support.

Life of Brian said...

Nice technique and good use of salt. Lovely job Mick.

Unknown said...

Brian - Thanks a lot. Yes, you spotted the salt. Not yet totally under control but something that I'll work on.