What do you get the artist who has everything?

I'm very lucky to have a husband who has the incredible talent of being able to make pretty much anything. If it can be thought up and the materials sourced, he can make it and believe me, I've asked him to make some unusual things since I've known him. Most of my degree was sponsored by his ability to make my vision become a reality and for many of my classmates too - if you meet him, ask him about the skateboard for a performing snail.
This Christmas though, he has surpassed himself. About a year ago he took an old cigar box and turned it in to a watercolour box to hold my Daniel Smith watercolour paints (which I squeeze out in to empty half pans) and a few weeks ago we discussed 'upgrading' this idea in to something that will hold every colour I own.
Let me point out, this is no mean task as I own MANY tubes of watercolour, but he rose to the challenge and not only hand crafted a box to fit 266 full pans (yep, you read that right) but it also holds my new ceramic palette and my folding water pot too.

It is a thing of absolute joy.
The box folds out flat on my drawing board without tipping, it houses the trays in the lid so that I can work from them while using my palette and waterpot, and it even has a small 'travel' tray so that I can decant out the colours that I am using that day and have seperate from the main box if I so choose.
Of course, I have completely lost my head over it and have now started labelling all the pans with the pigment information so that I can compare make against make...my obsessive tendancies are just loving every minute.

Just in case you wondered, I do know how lucky I am and I promise that I don't take it for granted that I have this amazing man in my life. Question 'What do you get the artist who has everything?' Answer: A bespoke watercolour box which she will always treasure.

Amazing what a holiday can do for you!

A holiday with my husband and I return to my studio full of inspiration! It's not necessarily that this cobweb painting was something I witnessed while I was away (more of those paintings to come) it's just that a week of beautiful countryside, reading and quality time with my family has freed up my head.
This painting (w.i.p. above) was created while the lovely Wyndham Art Group visited my studio this week. A small group of very enthusiastic painters, they have a huge sense of fun and vitality and wanted to come along and paint with me for the day. Oh, such a chore!
Together we created this piece, concentrating on using a ruling pen with masking fluid for precision blocking out and combined it with very loose, dark washes to show off the pale areas when the making was removed. There were many in the group who really hadn't mastered masking (try saying that quickly) and it was a pleasure to help them overcome their problems and unleash them on the possibilities that masking out can reveal.
Below you will see a close up of where the masking was used for the cobweb to give a sense of a stained glass window when combined with my favourite Daniel Smith watercolours in Cobalt Violet, Green Gold, Prussian Blue and Lamp Black.
Do you enjoy masking or is it a technique that has eluded you so far? Let me know and I'll help where I can, have a great week everyone.

A quick word about gouache

The more I use gouache, the more I love it.
When I originally taught myself how to paint, it was gouache that I first used as I loved the consistency and how flat I could get the colour to sit on the paper - I was heavily in to celtic knotwork at the time. Moving on to watercolours and leaving it behind, I've only just recently re-discovered how versatile a medium it is, particularly for inclusion in mixed media pieces.
Today at the studio we executed a foxglove painting and I'm not overly thrilled with mine, I definitely need to spend more time observing the shape of a foxglove 'trumpet'. However, we did add a bee in to our pieces and around the room, many people were pleased at how their bee wings came out, just with the simplest touch of gouache. Masking fluid would have been too hard and painting around them or glazing over the top may have been too big a stretch for some abilities so a little gouache and hey presto! a semi-transparent bee wing appears on the surface.
If you haven't ever had a chance to have an experiment with the medium, I urge you to try it out. I use Permanent White for highlights and it is quite versatile when mixed with watercolours or Brusho. Let me know how you get on and you are welcome to email me your paintings, or share them on Facebook. Have Fun!