(37) Ti Plant

This series began at the end of the year when I was rather burned out from digging deep and creating with lots of research and preparation.  I felt I needed a break and a friend told me I should give myself permission to just create for the love of creating.

One morning I walked in our backyard with my sketchbook and started drawing blind contour drawings of lots of plants that surround our home.  It brought such a release and joy in my spirit and reminded me how much I love to draw.   It also reminded me of how many times I overlook my garden of organic flora.

I took these sketches and re-drew them onto large stretched watercolor paper.  Using masking liquid in a special pen, I began drawing the lines of the plants.  Because I didn’t want to paint in all the shapes, I painted a wash of color over the lines.  Then another row of outline with mask.  Then a second layer of color and on and on until I had several repetitive lines and washes.  The next step was lifting out some background color and some of the shapes to give contrast.  When it was enough, I removed the masking fluid to leave the lines exposed in the layered colors.  Wow!  It was like magic seeing the colors revealed under the masking fluid.  Fun!

It was truly delightful to do this series and return to the joy of painting the beauty around me that God has provided.  

Watercolor on stretched paper

Diptych 36” x 24”