Page 36 - February 2020.pub

FEATURE ARTIST:

Jim Spriggs

My wife, Jackie, and I moved here six and a half years ago. It's
one of the best things we've ever done. I've been painting and
drawing for about sixty years. In recent years my media of
choice has been acrylics and watercolor. All of the examples
on this page are watercolor. The painting techniques for watercolor are very different from
other media such as, oils, acrylics, pastels, color pencil, etc. With watercolor, there is no color
white in the palette. All of the white in a watercolor painting comes from the paper. With oils,
for example, you can put a dark color
down and still bring back highlights with
over painting. Not with watercolor. Once
you put a color down on paper, that's it,
the white is gone. So, depending on your
style, you need to plan carefully.

The spontaneous quality of watercolor
can sometimes create wonderful acci-
dents or total disasters. When putting wet
paint on a wet background, you hope it
blends well. Oftentimes, I've pictured
what I think the results should be. And,
oftentimes, the paint has other ideas.
Mostly, I'll live with the results. Occa-
sionally, I'll toss the piece and start over.

February 2020 Page 36