sweet pea 5

#63 Sweet Pea 5 ~ 15x11~ acrylic and collage on paper

This sheet of paper is the first "real" sheet of watercolor paper I ever bought. It was expensive and because of that...it's 25 years old. Seriously. I have carried this precious sheet around with me for years, afraid to do anything on it. This last studio move had me reconsidering things like that... What the heck was I waiting for?  The poor paper was just sitting in my flat file year after year. (Makes me think of the island of misfit toys.) Finally, last week it came out...was quartered and is now supporting some paint and collage.
"Well, hello beautiful!"

sweet pea 3 and 4

#60 Sweet Pea 3  ~ 7x5

#59 Sweet Pea 4 ~ 7x5

Two that are smaller... 7x5. These are harder to do on a smaller scale. Finished Sweet Pea 4 last night and hated it. But this evening, I don't hate it as much. The ink on there gives some structure to the looseness. Hmmmmmm.

sweet pea one

#56 Sweet Pea One ~ 11x7.5 ~ acrylic and collage

Last week, I went out with some of my friends from the old "hood. Jill asked me about one of my challenge paintings that was of sweet peas. I drew a blank at first... then a few moments later thought of the painting she was referring to. I'm pretty sure it was this one. When I painted it, I wasn't thinking of any specific flower, but after she said "sweet pea" I realized, Oh Yeah! I love sweet peas. My sister grows (and fights with them) every spring.

Perfect subject to do this experiment with. I painted (too quickly... i was excited) some sweet pea shapes with watered acrylic onto water color paper. Then I painted more watery acrylic  sweet peas on a crumbled sheet of soft transparent paper. (I have a roll of it from somewhere... maybe my mom's sewing pattern making paper?) Let them both dry then glued the crumpled paper on top of the painting. I love how it veiled the previous painting... and it took the paint really interestingly after it dried and I added a bit more. I love me a new technique.