Spring Breeze IV (Finished!)

This is officially setting my record of painting -- I managed to finish a 14"h x 10"w painting in less than four days!!! (Ok, I admit this does not look too impressive if we are talking about most other painters, but to me, this feels more than a huge accomplishment...) I am totally exhausted -- three short nights up late painting. At this size, and without larger areas of uniform color, the repeated wetting of each small areas in the attempt of painting the softer, more wet look has caused the paper to buckle a lot -- yes, it is my fault not to stretch the #140 paper before taping it down, but in my defense, buckling is really not a huge problem if you are painting in the size range of 5" x 7", as long as you tape it down. Even if the paper occasionally buckles when they are soaking wet, they usually dry flat. It's not hard to smooth out a painting after it is finished -- take it off the board, wet the back and dry it lying flat underneath weights usually does the trick. However, the uneven surface buckle makes the painting process toward the end rather difficult, since I have to be very carefully not to paint too wet, so that the watercolor on paper surface would not pool in the valleys. Well, next time, I guess I will plan ahead and stretch the paper ahead of time when painting this size, since I usually paint very wet, and wet each area of paper many times before declaring it finished...

Spring Breeze IV, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper , 14"h x 10"w, 2012 #16

Buy It from My DPW Gallery ($250)