Open and closed spaces …

The exercise that I followed this morning focussed on the painting of abstract shapes, some of which are closed, some of which are open.

This was my first attempt:

I used a white oil pastel to draw the curves before painting over them – I really like the effect that the watercolour paint has had here. I think that it does look like I’ve created a load of glass rings, which wasn’t really my intention!

For my second attempt, I tried to steer away from the ‘glass ring’ look, I also used some different coloured oil pastels before painting over the shapes with watercolour:

I like the different shades of blue in both oil pastel and watercolour – next time I try a painting like this I think I’ll add the green and the red in watercolour instead of in pastel.

For my final effort of the morning, I thought of a shape in nature (in this case, water) which I then tried to replicate with oil pastels and watercolour:

When I try this one again, I will have fewer ripples but possibly a greater depth of colour. I will also aim to use some unexpected colours, to make the painting more abstract.