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| The Storm © Kate Lomax 2018 |
Some moments in life, pass you by and a week later, it has faded into a distant memory, a couple of weeks later, that precious moment has disappeared into the ether.
Other moments, make such a lasting impression, that you can never quite disengage from. You can never unfeel it, or unsee it.
That is how it was when I visited Boscastle on the north coast of Cornwall, on route to Tintagel. The weather had been so unkind, we had driven through thick fog, torrential rain, sunshine, and storms. Undeterred from enjoying our lovely Cornish holiday, we chose to stop off at Boscastle, the scene of a devastating flash flood in 2004. I watched the river running at a pace, given the rainfall on that particular day. As it gathered speed and force, I recalled the footage from 2004. I have never completely left the memory of standing on the pathway, imagining the torrents of water ravaging the village as it pulverised anything in it's path.
From where I live on the Solent, on the south coast of England, I can look along the coastline, and often see storms raging over the New Forest, Dorset and Southampton to the west of our coastline. The colours in the sky as the storms hit landfall from the ocean are amazing, particularly at dawn or sunset. They are always accentuated by the position of any sun, which could be shining in another part of the solent.
It is these two events that I have combined here. To begin, I worked wet into wet, dropping background colours onto wet paper, allowing the colours to bleed together and then blotting with kitchen paper before I ended up with mud. This I repeated twice more, and placed the lightening storm whilst the paint was wet. On the third wash, I guided the colour to key positions on the landscape, this time, allowing the watercolour to dry naturally overnight.
Working with bleeds takes patience, nerve, and quick reflexes to know when to blot, so make sure you are not going to be distracted while working wet in wet.
The next morning, I sprayed the outside edges of the work and dropped a blue / black pigment onto the wet paper and a cad and lemon yellow loose mix into the gaps between the edge and the main body, allowing the paint again to merge naturally. I also worked on the storm clouds and lightening bolts, until they were ready for highlights and shadows.
The next job was to decide on my final geography, which wasn't that far removed from what I had created the night before. I just needed to enhance the bridge a little, with a touch of highlighting, and to drop shadows in along the edge of the lightening bolts and along and underneath the foam wash created by the torrent.
I left the work to dry for the afternoon, allowing the colours to gently continue bleeding until the work dried naturally.
Remember when working with watercolour, that if saturated, the paper stays damp well after the surface has dried, therefore expect subtle colour changes as the hues continue to merge. This is one of the reasons that I really don't like to use a hairdryer to assist drying. The surface heats, and dries the fibres of the paper in an unnatural order, resulting in warping and overdrying, which can lead to surface flaking.
When working in wet, water based mediums, try and keep everything as natural as possible. Even the water. I fill up from my water filter jug, since I live in a hard water area. Allowing wet in wet work to dry overnight will give you great results, allowing you to enhance any detail safely the next day when the work is bone dry. For final enhancing, you can use a water based calligraphy ink. These are available in many colours. Steer away from acrylic inks, as these are opaque, and will blot out all of your gorgeous blends and bleeds. Calligraphy ink, although strongly pigmented, works well with watercolour, and can even be mixed to create some exciting colours. The important thing with watercolour is not to be afraid of it. Mix and merge your colours in an experimental session. Get to know your box of tricks and work with your new found friends with a smile.
Have fun!
The Storm. Artwork & Explanatory © Kate Lomax 2018 All Rights Reserved
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