Saturday's painting...

... This morning I tried doing two paintings at once. They are on totally different papers. One is the A5 sketch book (top one) I am using which is a mixed media paper. The other is a blank white index card (bottom one).

The mixed media paper absorbs the watercolour paints and they look more hazy, which is a great effect for some subjects. The index card is not absorbent, the watercolours sit more on the surface, making the painting a little darker (which is what I was aiming for), and because of the nature of the index card (not meant for painting on) I cannot work into the painting in the same way as I do with the mixed media paper. But that is fine, I just have to find ways of working round it to get the effects I want.

The reason I am going small is because I belong to Postcrossing where random strangers send random strangers a picture postcard. The site issues you with an address. More people are asking for a handmade card on their bio. And I would like to do that. But send a painting. The painting will have to be postcard sized. And the reason why I am doing it on index card is so that I can glue it on a conventional postcard so I can post it. Some people still want you to send the postcard as a conventional postcard, others want you to put it in an envelope to protect it.

Anyway, over the last month, I have mailed myself a few of my paintings literally exposed on the postcard. They were pasted on to the postcard. I wanted to see if it was feasible without damage. To test it further, I out it in a postbox exposed to the elements on a Saturday, and it wouldn't get collected until the Monday afternoon. Each postcard survived out postal system intact and no damage at all to the exposed painting. One was a minimalist acrylic painting of Mount Fuji, another was a Chinese black ink drawing, the third was a collage of my painting to create something different...so it is feasible. I do have loads of ideas, far too many...I used to think ideas would run out, but they don't, ideas are unlimitless...they are are bottomless pit...