Exciting Experiments

After 'Thirty Days hath September' it has been a complete joy to be able to get back to what I do best - painting and teaching. The promotion and marketing aspect of my job is always good fun but any time away from my palette makes me artistically itchy and longing to get back to being creative. This week I have been testing 'Millford' watercolour paper on behalf of the Society for All Artists (SAA) as the paper is relatively new to the art materials market. It is produced by the St. Cuthberts paper mill as a replacement to the old 'Whatman' paper originally used by JMW turner. I was a huge fan of Whatman when it was around as I loved the quality it gave to my paints, it lent itself very well to my impressionistic brush strokes and the fact that I like to use soft edges in my work.

Millford is everything Whatman was and more! I can imagine that people might be afraid of it due to its cost but believe me, it is worth every penny. Yes, it is a very different surface and you have to be nice to it but this is only to my advantage, as it means I can't 'faff' (my favourite artistic term) about with it too much and have to trust that it will grab hold of my paint and diffuse the colours as I want it to.

So here is the painting I worked on last night:

We have a herd of deer at the back of the farm where we live and I have been desperate to paint a stag ever since I heard him calling last week. The Millford paper has given me the soft, foggy atmosphere I was looking for with very little effort from me and I am really pleased with the result.

I have used a variety of techniques here, but I won't talk about them yet as they are still in development and I want to make sure I am confident with them before passing them on.

So please keep your eye on the blog as I'm sure there is lots more to come with this paper, I can see it fast becoming my favourite!

If you would like to have a go on this paper, you can order it through me or by visiting the SAA's Home Shop: www.saa.co.uk