Playtime - going bigger

So often when I am doing a play time as warm-up before my painting, I take a tiny little piece of paper cause I don’t wanna waste anything on just playing with ideas. And sure, making a tiny painting can be fun, but but if I’m ever going to get better at bigger, I gotta start by playing big.

So I took a page out of George O’Keefe‘s book and tried my hand at giant flower paintings. But to make things interesting, I decided to explore how one could show delicacy in super size. What happens if I took a tiny crocus flower and blew it up? How could I the transparency of the petals? And where does the importance of that actual details fade and the fun begin?

This is one of my in progress paintings that I’m really excited to share right now just to show what watercolour can do when you just have fun play and forget about the end results. This is why I paint, to make new discoveries, to travel in new road, to respond to the moment as it happens.

Crocus Petals. 11x18 in progress

I love the texture that came out with the salt, letting the white of the paper show through the beautiful pinks. I have no idea if I’ll make this into something that is inspired by rain on the pedals or where I’ll go, but that’s so much of the fun.