Welcome to my first blog, I am delighted to pen this one!
I wanted to begin by giving you some insight into my latest gallery wall watercolour paintings. What is gallery wall art you might wonder – simply put, it is a collection of items: usually framed artwork, photographs and personal treasures hung in a group. These are meant to delve into memories, tell stories and in some ways present the character of the home. My objective behind any painting is to bring joy and aesthetic wonder to the viewer and my latest set of gallery wall paintings were done with just this intent in mind – art to make the viewer happy and create a welcoming home.
Step 1 – Beginning with a personal favourite bright and vibrant yellow – it is a cheerful colour that i often associated with happiness, positivity, and warmth. I made a list of art ideas that would make the viewer happy – Art that makes you happy is often characterized by bright colours, playful imagery, and whimsical subjects. I jotted down a list of 5 – 6 watercolour painting ideas to include in this set. Heres what my first list looked like –
• Sunflowers
• Daffodils (of course influenced by the poem)
• Quirky tea set
• Yellow toys (to evoke childhood memories)
• Sunsets
Step 2 – was to explore vibrant and dynamic images to create a joyful and welcoming atmosphere and decide the sizes. I usually make mock-ups in Photoshop as I explore images. Not every image makes a great painting subject and I think it is essential to pick the right image and apply art principles before choosing the subject. Along the way, I discarded some of my initial ideas and added a few others. My final list included the following –
• Sunflowers
• Yellow Cottage with a garden (a wecloming home!)
• Winnie the Pooh (this one was a great suggestion by my daughter!)
• Yellow Chinese vase (the tiny details and colours make this an engaging subject, as an artist I am biased to these)
• Classic, vintage car – must admit, it was tough to choose just one car and I think I picked a great one!
• Sun conures – illustrated in a fun, playful way.
I fixed the sizes for each subject and once again turned to Photoshop to assist with making mock-ups for each painting. I mixed and matched sizes and shapes to create a dynamic look to draw attention. Once I was happy with the visualisation of the paintings, I picked up my watercolour paper and brushes.
Beginning each painting with tons of excitement, I had to slow myself down and not rush to finish them. I painted 4 of these paintings with a limited colour palette consisting of 3 staining, transparent colours.
More about this in my next blog. Here are my 6 ‘happy’ paintings that I thoroughly enjoyed making!
