Iris on Aquabord finished

I'll be honest. I've found this to be one of the more frustrating paintings I've ever undertaken. I never could get comfortable with the characteristics of Aquabord. I kept trying to tell myself that it was a phase, and that it would grow on me. After all, I had similar pangs of frustration when I first switched from Canson's Montval line of paper to Arches cotton-rag papers.

However, those frustrations when first using Arches faded quickly as I began to understand the potential locked within those cotton fibers.

I never reached that sense of promise with this painting. Perhaps I really am too set in my ways. And I have six more small pieces of Aquabord tucked in my desk drawer, so they'll have to utilized in some way eventually. Maybe I'm just not ready yet and another attempt will go better.

Scrub-a-dub-dub

So I've been daring, and I've scrubbed out the dominant fall on this iris and repainted it. I'm not sure that it's any better than the original version, but I think it matches the upper standards a little better now. I've decided that I don't like the glazing properties of Aquabord

I'm using staining colors so I thought I might be able to glaze from a technical standpoint, but it turns out that I didn't like the effect. I like the mottled results from flooding an area with mingled colors. That's how the upper standards were painted, and that's what I wanted to accomplish with the re-do of the fall.

However, in trying to get areas appropriately dark, I think I lost the mottled effect. But I still think it matches a little better. The first version felt highly finished, and really didn't look like watercolor anymore. It had the look of acrylic. I like the blemishes that indicate that watercolor was at work.

Getting the hang of it

I'm slowly getting the hang of Aquabord's characteristics in a wet-into-wet application. You can see the difference between the larger fall in the foreground and the upper petals (on irises the lower petals are called falls).

I had painted the fall first and was still struggling with the unfamiliar surface. Then I moved into the upper petals and there, in a smaller area, I started to get the hang of things. I then went back into the dominant fall to improve its look, but I'm not sure that I managed that.

One observation so far: the colors are definitely vivid. You can see the underlying layers of permanent rose in many areas, so there is a sense of depth, but I prefer the textures that developed in the upper sections resulting from a single mingled-color wash. The texture adds to the ruffled look that characterizes this particular bloom. Once the paint is down, it seems difficult to go back in and recapture that effect if you've lost it.

I'm tempted to wash out one area as an experiment, and then see if I can recapture the texture with a fresh application of paint. I'll keep you posted.

Iris on Aquabord

It feels as though summer is nearly over, and I have little painting progress to show for the last several weeks. In truth, I have two projects in the works, though my time for painting has been a little sporadic of late. 

I'll save the other project for another day, but here is my latest "Lunchtime Painting." Yes, yet another iris (easily my favorite flower), but the twist here is the surface on which I'm painting. It's not paper.

This is a 5"x7" piece of Ampersand Aquabord (formerly known as Claybord Textured). It's a a masonite board with a ground of kaolin clay on the surface. The company, and some other painters who regularly use the material, compare its painting qualities to cold-press paper, only lifting paint is much easier, they say.

I worked on the support in a workshop a few years ago and found it to be somewhat interesting. In the wake of that experience, I had purchased some small pieces of Aquabord. However, they've been  in a desk drawer ever since.

Given my painting doldrums, I decided to pull out  a piece and give it a try. And it's been a bit of a struggle so far.

I've been very much in the habit of developing these iris paintings with thin, watery glazes. The 300-pound Arches has been particularly well-suited for that kind of approach. But when I attempt the same procedure on the Aquabord, the outcome is very different.

First, the drying shift is deceptive. Normally, on paper, the paint looks very vibrant when wet and then lightens and loses some saturation as it dries. On this surface, the paint looks chalky and dull when wet, and then dries into more vibrant colors.

Second, it's difficult to soften edges and melt one color into the next because I don't have any feel for the hydrodynamics of the kaolin clay ground.

Finally, when things dry, there is a curious mottled effect that remains, often looking as though I had sprinkled a bit of clear water on the surface. I think it has to do with the textured nature of the ground. It's not unpleasant in this instance because of the texture of the flower's petals and falls, but it's unexpected.

So, it's been a learning experience thus far. I almost think that this surface demands more of a drybrush approach, or perhaps a very hard-edge, posterized style. Watery wet-into-wet seems to be problematic. But, I'll also admit that I'm a newbie, and I'm going to keep plugging along and experimenting on this project.

The watercolor painter I'm most aware of who is using Aquabord is Ali Cavanaugh, who has been featured in several of the national art magazines. She describes her painting process as "neo fresco secco," because she was inspired to paint on plaster surfaces, and then found Ampersand's product lines fit her needs. Her painting process is similar to that of egg tempera, using small overlapping strokes. To read more about her process, click here.

To see more of Ali's paintings, visit her website at: http://www.alicavanaugh.com/