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| Hyacinths II original pen & wash by Teresa Newham |
A number of mounted watercolours have been knocking around in my browser for a few years now, and are starting to look a bit tired. What would happen, I wondered, if I tried to tart them up a bit?
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| Hyacinths I - before the makeover © Teresa Newham |
My least favourite is Hyacinths - the composition and colours have never felt quite right to me. I thought perhaps a bit of cropping might be in order, but that wouldn't help with the colours . . .
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| selecting a crop © Teresa Newham |
I needed to practice on something, so I wetted the painting and carefully took off as much of the original colour as I could. When it had dried, I mixed up strong washes of Transparent Yellow, Permanent Sap Green and Permanent Alizarin and threw caution to the winds.
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| have I gone too far? © Teresa Newham |
The result was intriguing - the green granulated wonderfully and a beautiful orange appeared as the Alizarin mixed with the yellow. I painted the leaves with the green wash, added Cobalt Blue to a few of the flowers, and left the others as pale as possible.
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| leaves and flowers adjusted © Teresa Newham |
I'm pleased with the final result and keen to try again with a different painting. I have specific ideas for revamping one or two others, so I'd better not let my enthusiasm run away with me!
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| cut down and mounted © Teresa Newham |
Shows how observant I am - I noticed this painting out again but failed to notice what was happening to it! I think the results are brilliant - do try again with other paintings!
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