Playing with Color

On chilly winter days , No one in my home likes to go outside. Oh sure they will go out for a brief sojourn into the woods. They help me pick up sticks and wood for the wood stove, but with a hint of unwillingness.

I pulled out the paints once the basement was warm, and we played in the paint. Water color paints that is!

I have this thing that I like to do when I am in dire need of some creativity, but not high impact or time intensive.

First it’s some water color paper, I prefer cold press, but I’ll use whatever is on hand.

Then it’s color. Most of the time I do abstracts, circles, rings, droplets, what ever catches my fancy. I mix shades and colors, one of the wonderful things about water color is the way you can gradient color from light to darks. This is not ‘high art’ this is therapy, this is play!

After it has dried, with a warm fire going in the wood stove is mere minutes , I pull out a black fine point sharpie marker and start outlining. I go around the hard edges, emphasize some of the gradients, some of the white areas, I just go with where ever my eye takes me.

And Voilà! A colorful lovely that just makes me smile! I often put them in packages with notes on the back, or make them into greeting cards. I spray them with hairspray if I am going to use them as postcards.

My kids don’t always follow my lead, but they had fun with the paint!

These were their favorites, trust me we had a bunch strewn about the hearth !

and here is one I did that actually might look like something! LOL!

Anyway, just some ideas for play on those cold winter days, where you need the fun, but low stress! ( oh, did I mention that water color paint washes up really well? )

Ron, This post is dedicated to you my coloring friend! Thank you for the inspiration!