These dark days of winter can be difficult, this morning as I sit in my studio, on a grey January day, with persistent drizzle dripping down my window. I wander into my garden and I pass my Christmas wreath by the back door, fading gradually
I felt those sad mid winter blues that I think we can all be prone to around now.
"Oh no" ( I hear you all cry) " I started reading this to cheer me up, and she's all downbeat" Well no not really, it just reminded me that I feel similar feelings every year,
However, as I wandered around my garden I can see signs of Spring
I read these words by the wonderful Donna Ashworth this morning and they are just what I needed to hear
from Donna Ashworth and her book Life
“You may think yourself lazy, or flawed. Yet your body is made of almost exactly the same elements as the stars. Your bone composition matches the coral in the seas and you, my friend, are ruled by the moon and the sun. Whether you like it or not. So no, you are not lazy, Nature is simply pulling you to slow, like the life, the floral and fauna around you. It is not your moment to rise. It is winter, you are wintering. And you are right on time.“
For me light is what I crave the most and to see a strip along the horizon brings a smile to my face and a spring to my step .
So with Spring in mind and with people asking me about my new found love of painting backgrounds what better inspiration than the snow drop ?
Now I don't want to over state the obvious, but snowdrops are white , so to make them stand out , as with anything white, try to make what is next to them dark. Put your lightest lights next to your darkest darks.
So first I drew my snow drops.
Then I masked them out, using removeable masking fluid. I also added a few splashes and dots with the fluid.
Then I wet the right side of the paper and dropped some masking fluid onto the that to represent some extra snowdrops in the distance....would this work ? ...I was experimenting now.
Now to let the whole thing dry.....
I can also reveal that I have a bit of a problem....I can't help buying more and more paint and brushes...... So much so That I have palettes for different colours , helpful to me when I will be using a lot of one colour here is my green one.
So once the paper is completely dry, and the masking fluid too, time to wet it again, a lot.
Then to flood it with colour, whatever you think best but remember the focus is the flowers so get the colour quite dark behind them. To make colour more intense use a minimal amount of water, to lighten it use more water.
Play around now , be free, and when you like it stop!
I then added cling wrap to the bottom left corner to give texture to the ground where the snowdrops were growing.
I sprinkled salt on the wet paper ( although I must confess I think the paper was a bit too wet and it didn't work as well as I'd hoped) . I use normal common all garden table salt.
Then when you are satisfied ....leave it...go away, leave it overnight for best results. Turn off the light and forget it till morning....
So now you can remove the cling wrap and see what magic has happened.
I then use a very soft eraser to remove the masking fluid.
If you look you can see the difference between the masking fluid applied on dry paper and that applied on wet paper.
Dry
Wet ( the edges are much softer) This could be used in a seascape, or anywhere else you can think of.
You can also see the salt hasn't worked as well as I holed but it has in the top left corner and bottom right.
You can't re-apply salt ( I know I've tried) but sometimes you just have to go with what you have . It can work like this
Now to carefully paint the snowdrops, I won't go into too much detail as this blog is about the background. But I wanted to paint these carefully and precisely to contrast with the background.
Finally the greens and blues of the stems and a few tweaks to the background, I think this final photo shows the colours best, as light levels at the moment are making photographing my work quite tricky.
Have fun with your painting, and do what suits your style, I hope you are feeling ok, wherever you are and are still...like me looking for signs of Spring.
