Painting Glass With Watercolor
While I am in between of painting and drawing in my studio an din the class, I thought I'll answer one of my artist-friend's question:
How to paint glass in watercolor?
A small collection above shows several fragments of a few different glass surfaces from my paintings.
Unlike non-transparent, non reflecting objects where the rules of shapes and values applied almost precisely, glass surface has it's own so to speak character.
I call it ABSTRACTION. Yes, when painting glass the artist should abstract his mind from the subject and see the glass as the cluster of shapes, colors, reflections, and abstract forms..
I remember from my childhood how fascinating it was to look into Kaleidoscope at the unpredictable shapes of the small glass pieces reflected in the mirror...
...and now, when I paint, I can see how blue and white lines, for example (below):
can create a shape of carved glass and a round vase:
The sparkles in geometrical abstracts here:
can represent the crystal wine glass in this painting:
Warm and cold grays with brown in this abstract fragment:
all of a sudden, becomes a vase on the dining table:
But if the table is covered with tablecloth (see zoom-in fragment below):
the glass vase would absorb the surrounding pattern and warm greens of the flower stems:
And what if the glass is colored, not just transparent?
then, it will absorb the background through its own color.. just like in this green glass bottle:
Or, as in the case when glass is blue.. the blue usually is pretty strong, It almost does not allow the other colors in.. almost:
Can you resolve the puzzle and identify which from the above blue segments belongs to which blue vase below? :0)
One of my favorite discoveries when painting glass, was this collection of rainbows:
I found it in the glass rocks. Each of them was reflecting the world around and sifting it through its own shape and its own color:
When I paint glass, I always discover surprising shapes and colors combinations. Sometimes a simple stroke of a brush can identify the glass on the paper, and sometimes it takes much longer time to paint all the reflection, all the "abstract" forms.
Here are just a few more paintings that include the glass:
All of the above paintings that are presented in this post are small, approximately 10"x8", painted on 140lb Cold Pressed watercolor paper. Most of them are sold, but my customers are still appreciating reproductions of them in prints and canvases through Fine Art America... Maybe because of painted glass? :0)
In Every Piece Of My Art There Is A Piece Of My Heart And A Sparkle Of My Soul
