undulating / slow wave with pickerel weed

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framed / painting continued around edges / Never one to be contained by any medium, we have over the years made continuous leaps forward to take the watercolour medium in new directions opening new possibilities, and have once again done so here. I am now painting with watercolours directly on gessoed norwegian birch panels. Working on gessoed panels isn’t much fun, being akin to painting on kitchen counter top with every stroke beading up streaking, smearing, misbehaving like so much split coloured water, but I am dazzled by the new textures, the strength, immediacy and directness that results, (and my work on paper is strong).The paintings are finished by painting around the edges and as such can be hung without a frame or floated in a float frame. To secure the watercolour I lightly apply 2 coats of spray fixative, and once dry, lay on 2 coats of matt varnish, just as any oil or acrylic, to seal it permanently against the elements. Having scoured the internet for anyone else working in the same way, & unable to find a soul painting watercolours directly onto gessoed panels, I find myself, for a brief moment anyways, in a unique position creating something never been done before.

Where it's been: new work / Painting is a spiritual process connecting me to the world. I paint light, atmosphere, the transparency of water. The joy is none of these can be painted directly. One can only paint the effects of light by way of the different values / intensities where there is no light appearing as shadows. I explore water through the very reflections that outline its movement. The reflected sky above reaching down, the bottom sand, rocks & grasses all reaching up towards the surface, the changing colours of the forest edges trying to define, shape and contain it. I end up painting everything but the very thing I seek to paint.