Where Go the Fish?

Here is a painting done in the basement apartment in London Ontario you may recognize some of the scenery from "On Display" posted April 2. The idea for this painting came from a dream I had where my aquarium fish were swimming in the apartment. Apparently this type of dream means good fortune in Chinese culture. It may be true to some degree since I did end up selling the painting to a professor at University of Western. On the table is a puzzle I was working on, one of the fish is trying to eat a piece. Most of the fish are guppies, with a few zebra fish stuck in here and there.

The fish shapes were first painted with a liquid masking fluid which dries and protects the white paper underneath. The rest of the room was then painted over top of the masking fluid. Then, the masking fluid was removed with an eraser revealing white paper in the shape of the fish. The details of the fish were finally painted on, based on sketches I made from actual fish from my tank.

By the way, hot press means that the paper is very smooth, while cold press means that is had a rougher texture. The weight of the paper refers to the density (or heaviness) of the paper. One of the highest is 300 lb, which is like very thick cardboard. 140lb is an intermediate density. High weight paper costs more and handles differently, requiring more paint, but it does not buckle as easily as the low eight paper. This particular work was done from a 'watercolour block' which is a stack of sheets held together by a plastic wrap, which prevents buckling of the paper. Most of my work is now done on loose sheets stretched and stapled down.

 

Where go the Fish, watercolour 15 x 11" hot press, 2000 (No. 1872)