A Drawing From The Show At Las Manos Gallery

Untitled - Watercolor, Cardboard, Acrylic Paint, Watercolor Paper - 40"x26"

I am avoiding using the word 'sailboat' when talking about this drawing, I don't want it to be quite so literally interpreted. But whatever the white triangles are, in this latest iteration I challenged myself to include a lot of them. Why not push it to some extreme? When are there ever this many boats assembled? Only during the largest regattas, or some large scale evacuation.

I begin by washing good Arches watercolor paper with very concentrated 'Windsor Newton' Indigo watercolor. When the color is dense the blues look black/violet from some angles. The color never goes on completely evenly, and I don't really strive for that, the variations indicate traces of the handmade, and it can suggest any number of landscape elements. Once the paper is dry I flatten it by piling on heavy books overnight. The next morning the paper is flat-ish and I begin gluing on the triangular white cardboard pieces that have been washed in varying degrees with white acrylic paint. I diminish their size as I work my way up the sheet of paper, attempting to create a sense of perspective and receding space. I did forget how difficult it is to glue down the smaller triangles. My glue covered fingers just are not dexterous enough to easily manage small pieces of cardboard neatly. And every piece needs to be held in position for the first few minutes of dry time. Three days later I was finishing up the top row of tiny white triangles, and very ready to move on.