Two More Abstract Experiments

I had a craving to use the earth colours from Stonegrond paint after a bout of reading up on them on the internet. Most earth colours contain iron oxides to varying degrees, their content ranges from 10%- 90% depending on the pigment. The hydration state, and presence of other compounds like manganese oxide, clay, and silicate can also alter their properties. Most earth pigments are manufactured from iron ore slag waste, but some still come from the few remaining pigment mines in Europe mostly. In the painting I used them all! The main contrast element was the yellow ochre (PY43) and roman black (PBk11) with burnt sienna (PBr7) in the front brick wall around the staircase. I added some dilute ferrari red (PR254), ultramarine (PB29) and manganese violet (PV16) to the top and corner elements.

Ochre Alley, 5 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, March 2021 (No. 2599b)

 

This was also an exploration of the earth colours, including green earth (PG23). From these small experiments I learned that value contrast is important to use in the compositions, since the colours themselves are rather dull on their own. I am slowly figuring out the earth colours, I have about 20 of them now. I used a thin (transparent) wash of manganese violet between the green fence thing which really made the green pop out.

I stumbled across something called the transparent watercolor society of America, they had a cool gallery of masterpiece watercolor paintings on their site, some looked just like photos! They said something odd about the judging, the paintings were not supposed to have too much body colour. I couldn't find further explanation, but it seems that using the watercolour in thin washes rather than thick brushstrokes is their preferred technique. Then I found another site by John Lovitt that said opaque paints can be transparent, transparent paints can be opaque, and you can use these properties to create great effects. The two sources seemed a bit contradictory.

In the end the only rule in art is that there are no rules! But you have to know a rule before you can break it.

Flower Samurai, 5 x 7.5" cold press, watercolour, March 2021 (No. 2601a)