Watercolor Experiments

Our spring weather has turned cold today. It was drizzly much of the day, and Jim turned the fireplace on. Feels nice and snug in here, and of course the kitties love it. Once again, I slept a lot today. I started off with great plans and began working around the house, and before long, I was laying down for another nap. Sigh ...

Well, at least it's the weekend and I don't have to go to radiation tomorrow. Good thing. I'm starting to peel and it looks pretty ugly. Between the bright red raw areas and the dry brown peeling areas, it doesn't look like me at all. It's a little itchy, but not too bad.

I got my paints out today and did some watercolors. I tried working with something called Mulberry Paper. It's also known as Washi, or Japanese paper. It's made from the bark of a certain tree, and is a fibrous net backed with adhesive that I applied to my watercolor paper. I wanted to mimic a painting I had seen that looked really interesting because of the fibrous texture and the blending of the paint. I experimented twice, and wasn't successful at all. The paint couldn't be controlled and ran on the first attempt. On the second one, I masked off areas to keep the paint from seeping, and that sort of worked, except that when I tried to remove the masking adhesive, which is like rubber cement, it tore the fibers right off the adhesive. Oh well, maybe another time when I know more about what I'm doing I'll try again.

I had bought the packet at Michael's with a 50% off coupon. The package was regularly $5.00 for 3 sheets, about 8 1/2 x 11 inches, so I paid $2.50. When I slit open the package, there was only one sheet inside. I cut up the sheet into 4 quarters to experiment and to do my final painting, but I've given up for now. My next chore is to take it back to Michael's and get credit for being shortchanged. Luckily, Michael's is very close on my way home from radiation, so I don't have to go out of my way.

I did complete my earlier stained glass painting and that's it on tonight's blog. I'm glad I completed it, although I'm not happy with it. It's my interpretation of the photo on the left side of my blog, under my profile.