The reds, oranges and greens are stunning.

Just like painting other plant out of doors, the time to capture this brilliant display of colour is just a few short weeks.

I start the drawing on canvas with watercolour crayons.

Next, I fix the drawing with matt medium.

My set-up was on-the-fly so I sat on the ground and leaned my canvas against a tree stump. That way, I was ‘in’ the sumachs. I felt a bit like Alice (in Wonderland).

Painting detail showing my sgraffito marks.

I like the dark patterning that goes through the painting. When this is dry, I’ll have a better idea about how much of the original crayon colour is showing. Then, I’ll make my final changes.  Painting by Flora Doehler, 2012. acrylic. 36″ x 36″

I narrowed my pallet of Golden fluid acrylics down to yellow, green-gold, purple, pyrole red, and a cerulean blue mixed with white.

I can’t wait to work on this tomorrow and to finish another Sumach painting that I started ‘in season’ last fall and is waiting to be finished this week.

I want to show you another way of working with acrylic and watercolour sticks.

Brier Island painting by Flora Doehler, 2012

On Brier Island, looking towards Meteghan.

During the trip I noticed one of the other artists creating beautiful little watercolors with her watercolor sticks.  Another artist was using a underpainting in a complementary color to the main color  of her painting.   I  have used both of those methods/materials but it got me thinking;  what if I used my watercolor sticks as the underpainting and chose colors that would be complimentary to the local paint color? In other words, what if I used a red crayon underneath where I would be painting a green tree and allowed some of that red to show through?

Westport on Brier Island. Ink drawing by Flora Doehler, 2012.

I had some Derwent  watercolor artbars. I love their triangular shape because it’s possible to mark the canvas with broad strokes.

Drawing on canvas with watercolour sticks.

I drew my back ground using the complementary colors. This was a good exercise in reading the landscape as a series of shapes — although I must admit I deviated from the plan a little when it came time to painting.

Fixing the watercolour crayon by brushing matt medium over the canvas.

In order to ‘fix’ my drawing and to prevent it from dissolving into the paints, I brushed matte medium over the watercolor crayon and something very exciting happened. The medium dissolved and activated the crayon drawing making it blurry but also making the color of it spread into intense colour.

The intensity of the colour was brought out by the matt medium.

After the medium dried, I added more medium to the surface and then painted using my fluid acrylics. This is so that I can scratch into it and reveal the crayon colour underneath.

Briar Island painting by Flora Doehler. 16″ x 16″

I’m looking forward to developing new work using this method. And it just goes to show you the benefit from working with other artists and from having a good chunk of uninterrupted painting time.

Let me show you the steps I take.

Brilliant yellow golden globe flowers were one of the inspirations for this painting.

First I paint the medium on the entire canvas. I used a combination of a pouring medium from Golden Acrylics and a thicker one from Liquitex. For the background colour I dripped Liquitex inks into the medium.

Canvas with wet gel and ink.

Then I blended the ink into the gel with a brush. This will be the background and will help to unify the painting.

Canvas with wet gel and ink.

Next, I studied my reference materials…in this case flowers from my garden that have bravely weathered this summer’s drought!

Then, using broad strokes, I painted a suggestion of flowers onto the canvas.

Painting detail.

I try to lay in the colour with single strokes. This way, the gel allows every brushstroke to show. I like the freshness of painting this way.

Painting in broad strokes.

Sometimes I put two colours on the brush to add to the surprise and spontaneity of the brush stroke. I mostly paint with Golden Fluid Acrylics and I keep them in small plastic containers.

I use lots of brushes and rubber-tipped shapers.

Finally, I draw the scene using a rubber tipped shaper. This technique is called sgraffito.  I add a few more colours and at this point it is a push and pull effort. I try to keep the freshness of the colours as well as building up a contrast and creating a pattern of colour that goes through the entire painting.

Acrylic painting by Flora Doehler. 2012. 16″ x 16″

I can only get this effect by using gels and the slower drying mediums/gels allow me to work for several hours on the painting.

I am happy with my result. It totally reflects the joy I felt in looking at my garden flowers on a hot day in August.

Enamel Jewellery Beginner Classes.

Each piece is unique as most of the paint comes off on the first pass through the press, or by hand-burnishing. I have made videos to show you how to do this. This spring I gave 2 workshops on this technique and it was inspiring for me to see the results of other painter’s results with this method.

Springtime brings with her a promise of new life and colour. These are my Ode to Spring! I continue to plant lots and lots of flowers for inspiration.

The following monoprints are for sale. Each one is printed on archival cotton paper. The total paper size is 11″ x 14.5″. The image sizes are 8″ x 10″   or  8″ x 12″ .