Hello all! I know, I'm sorry. It's been vanishingly quiet here at Words and Pictures. Three weeks without posting... unheard of!!
I'm afraid I've been thoroughly immersed in my other creative world, working on a production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure here in New York, and that's been taking up my time and my energy. (I'm writing this at midnight, having just got in from work, because I can't bear to leave it any longer.)
But there is a flurry of blog activity due shortly, starting with a celebratory post on Monday and getting more exciting from there on. That's another reason it's been quiet here... There's been lots in preparation which couldn't be revealed, but the time is coming soon!
I keep promising to catch you up on my watercolour journey so, for now, I'm going to share a few sneak peeks and tasters of some of where that's been taking me. Shock, horror, I'm finding myself in florals quite often!!
The watercolouring really started to take hold earlier this year, partly because the equipment is relatively easy to travel with.
I've already shared some flowers, some fungi, wild meadow grasses, some trees, and some general messing about. (There are more watercolour posts if you've missed them and are curious.)
And I've carried on with the nature theme quite often, unsurprisingly.
There's a sort of tree series, varying according to the season or my mood on any given day...
... and playing on different kinds of paper (sometimes with added white acrylic splatter).
It's still amazing to me how much difference the surface you're working on makes to the play of the paints.
Some of what I'm sharing today was done months ago, back at the beginning of the year, or through February and March.
I had a whimsical turn at one point...
... all very pastel and pink. An interesting excursion but not very me, probably!
And I got obsessed with faces for a while...
... full of rainbow colours.
I'm still fascinated by how changing the colours will change the mood.
Some of them turned out to be whole figures. I never in my life thought I'd end up with little girls appearing in front of me on the page.
There are also some sketchy figures in action. I've doodled active figures for a while in the margins of my scripts (inspired by the stage action going on in front of me during technical rehearsals, when there are often long periods with not much happening that I have to pay close attention to).
I started with rough sketches in watercolour pencil, and used a water brush to add more shading.
I suppose it's no coincidence that I got hooked on faces and figures whilst I was in the midst of making my Elizabethan dollshouse dolls.
I even took a little sideways journey into some whimsical birds - this little chap is one of many. I suppose they're still part of that exploration of expressive faces in a way.
I had a glorious time combining the watercolours with my much-loved mixed media texture during a brief window of time in my actual craft room.
As always, the exploring and the learning are the main excitements for me...
... finding out what the paints will do, and trying to work out how they and I fit together best.
These pages feel like a really exciting part of the journey, and I know there's more to explore here. Trees feature again, you'll notice.
Then there are these florals which keep cropping up.
I guess it's partly the wonderful Tim Holtz coneflower stamp which inspired me to head towards daisies.
But they're also a relatively simple thing to draw, and drawing is an area where I need lots of practice.
It's nice to start with something which gives you pleasing results fairly early on.
I really enjoyed this version done over some watercolour ground applied quite roughly to the page. The scrumptious texture took all the pressure out of trying to get my drawing "right".
And the flowers have continued to come alive right here in New York.... some more daisies, in varying hues!
I got some fabulous decorative thistles to put in the large mason jars in my apartment...
... so I thought I'd have a go at trying to capture them on paper.
And then there's the relaxation of just mixing colours for fun...
I'm so glad I thought of bringing the wonderful colour wheel stamp from this fabulous stamp set by Andrea Ockey Parr with me.
It's great when you just want to clear your head by playing with colour.
And sometimes that inevitably leads on to yet more florals...!
I'm not going into details with any of this right now, partly because when I do have a spare hour I find I want to play with the watercolours rather than write a blogpost. As you know, my blogposts tend to be rather lengthy, so they eat up time!
But it's also partly because I've got plans for some of these, and I'll share the work in more detail if and when I get the ball rolling with those plans later in the year. In the meantime, I hope this post will have whetted your appetite for more.
And I do hope you'll be able to pop back and visit again between now and the end of June... I promise it will be worth your while. For now - given that it's 1.30am, I'll just say thank you so much for stopping by, have a lovely day, and happy crafting, all.
You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
Maya Angelou
(Yes, thank you, Maya - but what about the time needed to play with it all?!)
