Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Gaucho Dancer

"Gaucho Dancer"
Ushuia, Argentina

This is what happens when Mary meets Betsy Dillard Stroud - new experiments! I will experiment more with complex surfaces. Taking a page out of "Everything but the Kitchen Sink" day, I used stamping, gouche with watercolor, and layering to achieve an exciting surface. I did not throw acrylic or collage into the mix, which Betsy did. The young man is from a photo I took while watching young people do a gaucho show in Ushuai, Argentina, in February. I love to paint dancers. I would like to abstract the background more than I did here -- a step at a time towards the ideal.

Today I am off to an Acrylic Party sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society this afternoon. The company supplies the materials and we bring our paper and brushes.

7 comments:

Christiane Kingsley said...

I simply love the background! Keep experimenting...we enjoy the results.

Mary Paquet said...

Thanks, Christiane. We'll see where I can take these interesting backgrounds.

Barb Sailor said...

Love the stamps - they really add to the painting - all in all a really interesting work! It works!!!

Mary Paquet said...

Thanks for the encouragement, Barbara!

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary, I think the background helps convey the message of dance. So, did you stamp with gouache? I haven't tried that..! Wonderful.

Mary Paquet said...

Peggy, I stamped with a watercolor mixture of indigo and sienna. Betsy had shown us stamping with watercolor and it gives a nice variation. I painted over some of the stamping with a translucent layer of white gouche. On acrylic paintings, Betsy stamped with liquid black gesso. In fact, she likes to use black gesso as paint where she really wants opaque black on an acylic piece.

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