Not too much to say about this except that I decided that I wanted to start doing some of my small watercolors on good paper just as I do with my large watercolors. I like using lesser quality paper because I don't get precious about it and can be more experimental and freer. So I often use it for my quick and small watercolors. Once I know I'm using good paper I, like most artists I suspect, start tightening up and being more careful.
The problem with the lesser quality paper of course is that if you do a painting that you're happy with you have the problem of it not being on the best paper. With that in mind I started a new 7x10 inch watercolor yesterday on Arches 140 lb. Rough paper. I suspect I bought this centuries ago when I liked watercolors that showed a lot of paper texture, the kind you get with Rough paper. I can't remember having any interest in that recently at all. So this is probably really old.
But it's still good paper and I was happy to use it. The subject is two Blue-winged Teal, seen in 'The Meadows' at Cape May this spring. It's probably hard to believe that I spent 7 hours on this little watercolor but I did. Sponging, white gouache, opaque and transparent watercolor colors all played their part as I tried to get this painting to work. It did work yesterday but the colors just didn't sparkle the way that I wanted. So I spent another two hours trying. It's improved I think but still isn't quite what I'd like. I think it's time to move onto something new or another version though. This watercolor has already been through a lot.
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