Watercolour WorkshopWatercolour Workshop 115VISIT JOHN LOVETT ONLINE http://www.johnlovett.com^ http://www.johnlovettwatercolorworkshop.comExperimenting with these makeshift
materials is great fun. There is no pressure to
produce a masterpiece—or even a successful
painting. It’s just a process of playing with
what’s available and seeing where it takes you.
The biggest problem would be if a
masterpiece was produced, it may not be there
in six months’ time. The archival quality of
Qantas coffee or ground up geranium flowers
is probably not that high! With these little
sketches, it is more the fun of working with
the unfamiliar and seeing what can be done.
It does make you realize, it’s not the
materials you use that determine how good or
bad your work will be, it’s what you do with
what you have. I found the simplicity of the
compressed colors and the loose approach in
these experiments very appealing.To overcome the dubious permanence of the pigments used in the experimental sketches, I did two related paintings using this
sketchy approach and tight, subtle colors, this time with regular artist quality watercolors. Had I not played around with the pen and
coffee or the ground up plants, I would not have discovered this way of working. It just goes to prove, forcing yourself to step outside
what is familiar can often be the catalyst for a whole new approach to painting.