More enticements to travel to Italy – and paint the wonderful scenery.
My friend Bill Breckon is owner of The Watermill at Posara, a centre of excellence for the arts in unspoilt rural Tuscany (www.watermill.net) and his blog always has plenty of reasons why we should travel to that wonderful country. Not least are the paintings and painting tips by the inspiring tutors that come to take week-long courses at The Watermill. Like this one – a Matisse-inspired jigsaw from painting tutor Doranne Alden.
“And she’s also been inspired by Matisse occasionally to work in a ‘jigsaw’ fashion or ‘cut-out’ style. Doranne says: “I find it is a novel way of working in any medium, though I do find that some media are better suited for this than others.” The colourful painting above is a result.
Doranne says: “Using my favourite watercolour inks in this painting, you will see in the step by step photographs below, that I did not use any masking liquid or any other masking method. In fact I worked round the shapes of the objects I was painting.
“The ink I used is very vibrant and unforgiving as the colours are all permanent and relatively fast drying, but after years of using them, I still find that they give me a sense of freedom of expression and thoroughly capture the mood and colour of whatever still life I set up in front of me.
“Hope you enjoy seeing the process as much as I enjoyed painting it.”