Pam Potter demonstration at Bolton Art Circle

What always pleases and impresses me is when an artist does a demo they haven't done before and shares their reservations about whether or not it will turn out!!! Makes us all feel a bit better I'm sure and so it was with Pam. She had decided to do a rather complex waterfall scene which she had drawn and masked previously so that she could spend her time sharing her techniques, tips and hints about the variety of media she uses.

As many of you will know who follow my blog regularly am a bit of a watercolour kinda gal, if fact not much room for anything else in my world but I have to admit I was really tempted by what Pam showed us and might be tempted out of the old "comfort zone" and give some of the things a try.

So although Pam uses watercolour, she combines it with other media such as wax crayons, both soluble and non soluble,  pastels, inks, collage, charcoal, graphite, a variety of other products such as acrylic luminescence medium and opaque flakes to name but a few and shared lots of hints as to how and why she might use something in a particular piece. The most interesting thing I found however was how she used her paint tubes to paint with.. She squeezes them and uses the edge to spread and draw with the paint then sprays and lets it all run together and the results are that she achieves some stunning rich, dark colour combos which remain beautifully fresh and vibrant. She uses a glue applicator to create lines and texture within these lovely mixes and to spread the paint around and only rarely in the whole demo did she use a brush.

Pam has an intense love of colour and texture and creates paintings with a contemporary feel using a mixed media approach, she is, most importantly, not afraid to experiment something I think we can all learn from rather than always sticking to what we know and are comfortable with!!

 I love to see the effects of  watercolour mixing and doing it's magic on my page and there is a real challenge in trying to get these effects by skill and technique and using only watercolour and  I am not saying I am prepared give up that challenge and throw in the towel,  but I do think there are effects which though different are quite wonderful as well which cannot necessarily be obtained by pure watercolour.

So here is Pam's finished piece, the texture and special effects can't be seen too well on here but believe me... it was absolutely stunning and encompasses all that I love in both watercolour and art in general, colour, light and texture which is why I may be tempted have a go at something like this!!