One of the first reference books I had was ambitiously titled 'Everything you need to know about waterolor". In fact, it only had a few things that you really needed to know about watercolour, along with a lot of oddball tricks you could use like applying saran-wrap to the painting while wet, making colour chickens, and throwing salt in the washes. In 2004 I was taking paintings to various art in the park shows in London Ontario and created a series of florals done in a light and airy style. To spice up the painting I threw salt grains into the semi-wet wash to create the appearance of small white flowers bursting from the vase. Judging the moisture is tricky, if the wash is too wet the salt just disappears, if the wash is too dry the salt wont dissolve at all. It works in a controlled studio setting, but not something I found to be very useful on location. Salt is better for preventing the water from freezing when painting in the winter.
Flowers with Grains of Salt, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2004
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