the scent of paint.

art journal pages
watercolour, ink

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i pulled one of the little tubes out of the bag, unscrewed the lid, and watched cerulean blue ooze out the top. i took a deep breath and the smell of the paint reached my nose.

instantly, i was eight years old again, digging around in my drawer for the stack of paper dad had bought me from work and that yellow metal box of watercolour paints. i could see it as clearly as if it was sitting on the desk in front of me.

how had i forgotten this? that i used to paint a lot when i was a kid, just for the fun of it, just to revel in the glorious colours? it must have been at least 25 years, probably more, since i last painted with watercolours. it took the scent of paint to fire memories i didn't even know i had.

i came back to watercolours recently after several abortive attempts at using acrylic paints. i decided i wanted to move beyond collaging with decorative paper, and make my own designs. john gave me his stash of acrylics but i could not make friends with them. even when watered down the paint was too heavy, the colours too flat and garish for me. also, i can be clumsy, and i got that paint every where.

so john suggested i try watercolours, and now i am blissed out in love. i could sit and paint all day long.

i'm also crazy about texture these days. i love finding different ways to put paint on the paper; every thing is a potential paint brush to me. my current method is to slap on the paint with a traditional brush and smooth it all down with my foam brush [oh, how i love that foam brush!].

then comes the fun part - making textured patterns in my paint with what ever takes my fancy today. so far these are the things i've used to make texture, some successfully and some not-so-successfully:

*sponge
*rag
*steel wool
*fly swat
*scrubbing brush

*jar opener

*lemon peel
*lemon leaf

*flannel washcloth
*seed pod

*bubble wrap

*sand

*silver chain

*jars
*glue stick lids

*stamp pad lids
*my fingers

 [any more suggestions welcomed!]

as you can imagine trips to the hardware store with john have taken on a whole new meaning. while he sighs over whiteware and power tools, i'm busy looking for things to make texture with. i've also started using crayons, vintage books and maps, chocolate wrappers, labels and stickers in my painting, and they're fun too.

guess what i spend most of my spare time doing these days?

art journal pages
watercolour, pearlescent watercolour, oil pastel, gouache