Monday 16 August 2010

Winter pool

Winter Pools, detail, Vivien Blackburn

This is a small mixed media piece, 10 x 8 inches of a winter pool on a still blue skied day. Above and below are close ups.

It was done on Somerset paper, in a mix of watercolour, coloured pencil, gouache and ink. I like the variety of marks possible with mixed media - the transparencey and looseness of watercolour, the splattering with it; the hazing of coloured pencil over watercolour washes to create layers of colour that shine through each other, the calligraphic marks of pen - biro in this case - and the covering power of touches of gouache. The paper is quite creamy and I wanted some pure clear white in the reflection, so used the gouache to lighten it where necessary.



Back to work as I've got to produce another 4 in this series .....

6 comments:

Making A Mark said...

I love the very real wintry feel and you've got the glassy surface of the pool off to a T

Making A Mark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Africantapestry and Myfrenchkitchen said...

Beautiful beautiful Vivien!! It is so quiet and wintry...never thought I would say this, but you're making me actually look forward to winter with this lovely scene!
Bisous
ronelle

vivien said...

:>) looking forward to winter! mind you - the light can be utterly beautiful and I love the bare branches on the trees - so calligraphic.

I wish someone would invent an invisible, see through, bubble of warm air that wrapped around me and travelled with me - keeping out the cold and shielding me from wind and rain so I could work out in all weathers! Wouldn't that be amazing?

Jeanette Jobson said...

The light in this does say winter well and the mix of media works perfectly.

I personally could do without winter ever again, but scenes like this show me there is beauty in the season.

Ann Christine Dennison said...

I love the feel of this painting, very beautiful work :-)