Waterlilies Watercolor on Canvas
I was exploring a new surface for my watercolors: Watercolor Canvas. Before, I tried watercolor board and thought to try a canvas this time. The board surprised me with the fact that it was practically impossible to place the layers. When I tried to place second layer on it, my first layer would mix with wet surface and simply disappear. From my experience, watercolor canvas has better fluidity than a board; you can make a good wash if working fast and knowing what colors will go in what place (does not allow reapplying though); and, the canvas allows to place a second layer yet it should be darker than the previous one.
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And I was surprised how my hands were adjusting to the quality of the surface this time. Feeling that the colors will not flow like on 100% Cotton Watercolor Paper, my hands started applying paint in kind of pointing style (e.g. instead of sweeping my brush across I was "pocking" dots all over the surface with different colors or just making very short strokes). Quite interesting experience! My style changed completely in just a few minutes since I started painting. The surface dictated the technique. At some point I thought about Monet and his Water Lilies; how did he paint them? What did he feel? Although, yes he used oil paint; I guess I got the oil paint thinking then :)
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The advantage of the watercolor on canvas is that if you want you can place it on a wall without framing (though you will need to use fixative of course). Yet, lately I am experimenting with watercolor board (with stretched Cotton Paper) that also will not need frame except a cradle board. I've noticed that some of my clients would like to have watercolor paintings without frames in there collections. I was researching how to do that too. And I'll share this experience with you in the future.
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