2023, A Dip into Beara.

Water and Colours…

Back to the beautiful Beara landscapes, with a focus on old farm buildings, some of them abandoned but all packed with that special rural Irish charm…
I work as usual from my own photographs, and this year I choose watercolours .
My favourite “classic” watercolour paper is Arches (grain fin, 300gr), a French brand dating back from the 15th Century, and creating beautiful, inspiring papers using 100% natural fibres . I have tried many other papers in the past but since I had a go with Arches, allthe other moved back to the bottom of my draws… I just love the way this paper loves the colours and swallows the water .
I use watercolour tubes, because they go a long way and I find they allow to work faster, with bigger brushes and wider surfaces.

But some days I also  feel like going more instinctive …
My previous experiments with Yupo paper (see my 2021 post) came back to my mind while I was swimming and snorkelling in my local favourite spot, in the Cristal clear waters of the Atlantic coast…
If Arches is 100% natural, Yupo is at the opposite, 100% synthetic ! The work on these 2 is totally different, one driving me into details and precision, the other taking me to unexpected surprises and spontaneous shapes . No photograph, just the images in my head,  Yupo was the perfect support to paint the undersea world and create the “Pearl swim” series…
The medium , watercolour, was exactly the same…
Different papers, different technique,  different game,  but equally fun !…