• South Surrey White Rock Art Society will be holding an art show/sale during the spring of 2012.  Further details will be posted soon.
• For other South Surrey White Rock Art Society information click here

Catherine at the Art Show – Semiahmoo House

•  There is an ongoing display of paintings by the South Surrey White Rock Art Society at the Coast Capital Playhouse, 1532 Johnston Rd., White Rock where several of my paintings are on display.

Coast Capital Playhouse Theatre

A small portion of the art displayed in the Coast Capital Playhouse Theatre

• Art Displays at White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock occur on a monthly rotation by various artists.   A collection of my paintings will be on display during the month of May 2012.

Rocky Shoreline I

Rocky Shoreline II

I use molding paste on occasion to add texture to paintings.  On the paintings of Rocky Shoreline I and II, I used it to mold the rocks on the shore and for the white crest of the ocean waves.  This added emphasis to the paintings.  Here is how I do it

1. Prepare canvas with absorbent ground as described in the “Painting Watercolors on Canvas” post.  Allow to dry thoroughly.
2. Apply a light molding paste (I use Golden Light Molding Paste) with a palette knife, or any other preferred tool, to the areas of the canvas you wish to have textured.
3. Allow to dry thoroughly.
4. Paint with watercolors as you normally would.  Paint right over the molding paste.
5. When complete, spray with a  fixative as mentioned in the ”Paintings Watercolors on Canvas” post.

I wanted to be a bit humorus, so I chose what you see.   I was then concerned about how to paint the background that shows through the clear glass including the stem of the glass.  So I went to Google and did a search on images to get a martini glass.  I made a black and white print of the one I liked in order to get proper values (i.e. depth of colors).  You can also look at some clip art to get ideas for this. 

As you can see, I only painted some of the background showing through the glass.  I also used different values for the background color which helped give the appearance of liquid in the glass.  Also see the background painted in the stem and pedestal of the glass.  This gave the painting the appearance of light coming from the left side and helped to produce the image of clear transparent glass.

After painting the olives and goldfish in the glass, it was obvious that I had to do something to make them appear in the glass rather than outside it.  I did this by using a razor blade to scratch some lines into the painting.  See where the lines of the glass and the liquid level are etched onto the olive.  Also see where the goldfish has some lines etched into it to make it appear inside the liquid.

By the way, I never use white in any of my paintings.  I leave the paper unpainted in areas which I want to remain white.  I will either use liquid frisquet to mask out an area or just paint around the areas that I want to leave white.  It takes some planning but it works very well for me. 

Happy painting!

Catherine Brown

Sunflower

To use watercolors on surfaces other than paper, the substrates (e.g. primed canvases or gessoed surfaces) must be prepared with absorbent ground creating absorbency similar to paper:  

To protect your painting once completed it must be finished with an isolating or sealing coat, unless you plan to mount your painting under glass:  

Catherine Brown