Seeing Red

Seeing Red

Here’s my latest watercolour. I know there’s been enough snowdrops on social media to cause an avalanche, but I’m hoping a few extra from me won’t matter.

Last week I was happy when I painted a pale delicate watercolour of snowdrops in a jam jar. With my latest painting, as a complete contrast I wanted to team up my snowdrops with something black!  This tea bowl is one of our favourites and was made by potter John Maltby, who sadly died last year; we have a few of his pieces and love the colours and abstract shapes in his decoration.

I love the idea of combining collage with watercolour, this time I took it a step further using print as well. The blackbird is a lino cut that I'd test printed on a scrap of squared paper, I like that extra layer of pattern under the print. The band of black at the bottom is a strip of Indian handmade wrapping paper with a lovely edge on it. I decided to go bold with a bright red background which I’m really pleased with, I felt I was taking a risk with my cadmium red wash but it feels great when I push a painting a little bit further and somehow the colours, shapes and positioning of everything just ‘works’.

I’ll be saving this one for my first  real exhibition or event of the year, wherever and whenever that might be!