Storm Breaker
I utilized a new technique in this watercolor. The background sky and ocean were painted and left to dry before I ‘scrubbed out’ the white water and spindrift. In traditional watercolor, the white you see is simply unpainted paper. In other words, there’s no white paint used at all. This is a big part of what makes transparent (traditional) watercolor so vibrant and compelling. Light passes through the pigments and reflects off the white paper to your eye. This approach facilitates a vibrancy other painting medium cannot. With that said, there are other ways to preserve or recover your ‘whites’. I have long lifted or scrubbed out the portions I wanted white, but never on this scale. Here I flooded the areas of white water and spindrift with clean water and then when to work with a paper towel, removing the pigments. I’m happy with the way it worked for this painting and feel like there’s another tool in my toolbox. After 50 plus years of painting watercolor it’s nice to still be learning and discovering new ways of communicating what I see and love.
Original Framed Watercolor – 31 ½” x 43 ½” – $5,850 – Image 22” x 34” – All Rights Reserved.
