My Week--Rebecca Arnold

Day 1:

9"x12' watercolor

Since I was a little "rusty" in watercolor, I decided to start off small.  This was by far the most tight & detailed that I worked all week.  I really needed to challenge myself to loosen up.  This was also the beginning of my experience with landscape painting.  Prior to this class I primarily worked on large canvases with acrylics & abstract in style.  I enjoy working with several different medium, so I wanted to concentrate on watercolor for this class.  My goal for the week was to "play" with the watercolor & to find ways for allowing the watercolor to do what watercolors do best.


Day 2:

18"x24" watercolor

On the second day I did loosen up a little bit.  I used much bigger paper & larger brushes.  I really enjoyed working on the rocks.  I was able to use masking fluid & plastic wrap to help gain some rock texture. 

Homework:

 4.5"x6" watercolor on Yupo paper

In the evening I worked on Yupo paper during my homework.  I LOVED this paper!  It definitely forced me to loosen up, but I really enjoyed the simple shapes & the way the colors swirled or blended together!  This "ahh haa" moment changed the direction that I wanted to focus on for the remainder of the week.

Day 3:

18"x24" watercolor

I began my day really struggling!  I felt conflicted on how to incorporate what I so much enjoyed about the Yupo paper.  I started off working on large paper.  After struggling with where I really wanted to go, I decided that working on the larger paper wasn't allowing me to get the wet-on-wet effects that I was longing for.  I switched to smaller paper & loosened up even more.  I was trying to capture those simple shapes while playing around with the wet-on-wet within those simple shapes.

9"x12" watercolor

I was much happier with this experiment.  After this, I switched back to larger paper, but I soaked the paper in the lake before working on it.  It was definitely wet-on-really wet! It left me with a very soft, fuzzy effect.  In the end, I decided I preferred working on smaller paper.

Day 4:

Both are 9"x12"

I began the day working small & continued with smaller paintings throughout the day, but loosened up as the day progressed.  Again I was focused on simple shapes & allowing the color to play within those simple shapes.  The first couple that I did reminded me a lot of Georgia O'Keeffe!

Day 5:

Both are 9"x12" watercolor



On the final day I began eliminating the foreground & concentrated on the water & the background.  As I was working with the wet-on-wet technique, the water began interacting with the trees in the background.  I enjoyed that, so I began lifting & tilting the paper to allow the water to bleed with the background.

Reflections on my week:

I enjoyed my week & attempting landscape painting.  I really loved working with Nora & found her so helpful.  I'm grateful that experimented with the watercolor & branched out from what I normally do.  In the end, I may not be a landscape painter & if I were to take the class again, I'd probably play with a different medium & attempt a different style, but as Nora said, we are always searching & improving our style-it never ends!