Experiment

A couple of years ago I took part in an international watercolour festival in Fabriano Italy. Apart from exhibitions, lectures and meetings there were a number of interesting workshops. Among them was a workshop lead by the renowned french artist Didier Brot in which he demonstrated the use of synthetic paper. In the US this paper is called Yupo and in France Lana Vanguard. He started the workshop by telling the participants to forget everything they had ever learnt about watercolour! This was, to say the least, a new approach for me. 

Basically the technique involves painting the dark colours first as a background and then lifting areas off selectively, where needed, with a damp brush. Then its possible to gradually build up the subject by adding colours of different strengths. The colours stay on the surface of the paper and easily run into each other even after drying time. This took some getting used to.

Here is a painting I have been working on for the last 10 days. I wanted to depict the atmosphere of magic and mystery in a Swedish forest. It was a great challenge to render the details I wanted and I had to paint them several times before getting them right.