Finished Work: The Deep (brush only)

I added kosher salt, let dry, removed that, reapplied paint in some areas that were too light, then laid plastic wrap into wet paint. After that dried, lifted it off and did the spiky fish top right, bottom right one, the upper middle red small koi. Then far left fish with his mouth open and lastly the big guy in foreground. All developed using a brush, NO PENCIL, negative painting. I tried to lose edges, put darks next to lights, etc. No photo refs either. I re-wet top left and added salt again for texture. Lastly I splattered paint for bubbles as if underwater. Look closely you can see coral reef sticking up in the foreground. I'm sure it is full of mistakes but it sure was fun being creative and not copying photos for a change; this is real art folks!

Reworked Cat and Fish

14x11 watercolor collage on gessoed matboard. Awhile back I painted this (December 2009) and posted here in the blog.

Realizing it was too dark, I took it back to the drafting table and removed the background then repainted using American Journey Mint Julep. Some fish were redone and cat's tabby stripes also. Hopefully it reads better now. I did leave the red paper collage ear. Its title is Cat Tales and Fish Stories.

Nassau Fisherboy

15x22 watercolor on Arches 140 lb hot press paper from my old photo of first Bahamas trip in the 80s. See the photo here as posted on WetCanvas Weekend Drawing Event currently running.

New Watercolor Collages

Jailbird

Copyright Kay Smith 2009

Cat Tales and Fish Stories

Yesterday and today was fun day in the studio for me to relax after the holiday hubbub and hoopla. I'd already prepared two 11x14 approx sizes of matboard, one had been brushed with black gesso (cat above) and the other white gesso along with torn tissue toilet paper covers. This cat here I placed cut out plastic shapes into another coat of white gesso over the black gesso, let dry, then applied paint where I saw shapes. Christmas miracle! There appeared a cat and fish!

With Jailbird, I collaged a man's eyes photo detail I'd torn out of a newspaper, then the bottom half of his face appears on the left side. Portions of an article about a suave and shrewd swindler are scattered about including info about the police. Just last week had been reading about Mr. Madoff and how he got caught in his Ponzi scheme. With multicolored pencils I wrote words across such as ruthless, mean, schemer, etc. Also I stamped words and postmarks with black gesso. Using colored pencils, watercolor, Caran D'Ache crayons, I put colors down then removed until a design emerged of birds, then jail bars, almost by magic. Green areas were added to symbolize green grass Mr. Madoff won't be seeing as well as hear birds singing.