Watercolor Painting by Leslie Lambert Redhead

Leslie Lambert Redhead (Artist) -
Watercolors – I’m an artist and teacher living and working in Victoria, BC.

Bridge to Ronda is a poured watercolor of the beautiful and historic Roman bridge that connects the older part of Ronda, Spain with the newer section. It spans the El Tajo Gorge. Along the cliffs of the Gorge are these wonderful old homes that look like they are barely hanging on.

This is my latest painting of Spain. It is watercolor on clayboard. Clayboard has a great texture and the best part is that it doesn’t need to be framed under glass!

I started with a couple of pours of color then painted in the darks. To do this, I first saved the whites with a resist (masking fluid, which is a latex) then I poured liquid watercolor across the surface. After the paint dries, I mask the next value, then poured again to get that beautiful glow. I did this only 3 times before I painted in the darker values.

I am quite pleased with the orange glow because to me, Cordoba had that beautiful warm glow throughout the city. I think this is because of the color of the buildings as well as the canvas that is strung between the buildings to create shade.

Cordoba was one of my favorites places that I visited while in Spain. I would love to spend several days there getting lost and exploring the city. It was all so magical.

This is another painting done on clayboard. I started this one the same way that I started the Cordoba painting in my previous post. I first saved the whites (using masking fluid) then I wet the board poured liquid watercolor across the surface. After it dried, I saved my light values and did the process all over again. After a couple of pours, I lifted the masking fluid and painted in the darker values.

This is a process that I have not used on the clayboard before. What I discovered is that my pencil lines are lost very easily and it is hard to redraw them on the clay. I ended up having to draw with the paint trying to figure out some of the areas on the right hand side. That is really not much different than drawing with a pencil. It is just in color. The clayboard has a wonderful pebbly texture that lends itself well to the texture of the buildings.

Painting into the clay is similar to painting a fresco.
The best part is that I seal it with an acrylic varnish and it isn’t framed under glass.

We woke up on the third day of our visit to cloudy skies. It was a bit of a bummer but it did cool the day off enough to enjoy hiking up and down the hills of the village of Iznajar. It also allowed for us to catch up on all those paintings that we started. The above painting is another pour from the front of the resort.

Leslie Lambert Redhead (Artist) -
I am a watercolor artist and teacher living and working in Victoria, BC. I am also a signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists (AFCA). My art work is in collections worldwide.

http://leslieredheadart.blogspot.com
http://www.leslieredhead.com (Site will be up soon!)
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