Blackberries

Each season holds a special place in my heart, and in my paintings. As the year turns then my subjects change too and new delights await every month.

This month the hedgerows are filling with ripe blackberries and I love to spend a happy few hours capturing them in watercolour. I like to paint them loosely, I like to imagine the juice on the paper just like the juice on your fingers as you go blackberrying.

So here is a short blog on blackberries

I had already painted a few,. But before I added any paint to the paper , I used a paper clip and some masking fluid to quickly paint in some spiderwebs

 

 

Then choosing my spot on the paper I begin a new blackberry, under-painting each little berry in cerulean blue

 

 

Then adding a darker shade using rose madder and purple. 

 

 

Now the scary bit......

Grab a spray bottle

 

Squirt the freshly painted blackberry with a spray, try to spray just half of the fruit and let the juices flow.....

 

 

Now you can leave the water to work it's magic

 

 

meanwhile I can work on more leaves . I use the brush horizontally and create shapes adding splots and splashes. I also drop darker shades into the green

 

I also add some darker shades into the blackberry adding indigo to my purple colours.

You can add as many berries as you like. The red berries are done in the same way but under painted in yellow, then red.

It is so much fun and a special treat for September