When my daughter was a young child I made up an imaginary spirit who lived in the garden named the Garden Witch. She helped the garden sleep, grow, and blossom just as we do. Sometimes the garden witch cried when we were not being good stewards of the garden (mother earth). We found the tears she left behind in the morning under the leaves of plants, in the blades of grasses and on the petals of flowers.
Process Most of the art work for this particular series will be painted on round paper of 140-150 weight. The paper has a rough texture and I find this a challenge to work on. I am not sizing the paper first.
I'm using various brands of tube water colors
I'm using small, medium and large brushes for these paintings.
I begin with a vague iconcept of what I'm going to do and then, create a few sketches in my journa. I use previous studies of flowers as a reference. I sketch out the figure and other elements frehand and using stencils made on heavy paper. I combine stylized images with more realistic images.
I lay down the color for the large areas first and usually begin with the face. I work wet on wet and let each layer dry or almost dry before adding a second color. Each layer is a glaze. I create "tests" sheets of color before applying these to my original. When I'm finished with the art work I put the work away for a few days. Then, I go back and see what I might improve.
I always document my work by taking a photo of it.
I'll add more thoughts later.
