My Experience with Watercolor Canvas Panels

All Tied Up

Watercolor on Watercolor Canvas Board

16" X 20"

(A 1952 International Harvester Pickup Truck 

Entwined by Nature)

Every time I decide to try a new material, whether a new paint or a new platform to paint on, there is a time of adjustment when you are searching for techniques that work for the new materials. For the last week and a half I've been painting with watercolor paint on a Fredrix®  Watercolor Canvas Panel™.  I've used watercolor canvas (not mounted on a panel) before and liked it when painting with fluid acrylic.  I found I could work pretty much in the same manner as when painting on watercolor paper.  Unlike painting on traditional canvas, watercolor canvas is smoother and doesn't require you to apply an initial coat of paint to fill in the texture of the canvas.

I expected the watercolor canvas board to demonstrate the same smoothness but found it had a little bit more tooth or texture.  It was also more slippery, so when using dilute watercolor (i.e., pigment with a lot of water mixed in) it tended to remove the earlier layers of paint no matter how soft the brush and how lightly I pressed on the surface. I had to switch to using thicker applications of watercolor paint with very little water added to the paint. I could layer the thicker paint, using a light touch, and blend the new paint in with the earlier layers. Glazing thin washes didn't work.

As a watercolor artist that is used to applying thin glazes and gradually shifting to paints that have less water, I found it a bit uncomfortable using paint at a buttery consistency for most of the painting.  It felt much more like painting with oil paints, which I haven't done in 20+ years. I had to remember how to blend oil paints and use techniques much more like that. I reviewed information on https://fredrixartistcanvas.com and found out there is a lot of sizing on the canvas and if you wet and rub the canvas before starting to paint the "slipperiness" of the canvas is much reduced.  Of course it was too late to do that. Another tip was to apply and blend paint with the edge of the brush rather than the tip of the brush. I considered pulling out my fan brush for blending, but never did. 

"Scumbling" lighter color paint over darker passages, allowing the darker color to peek through the lighter passage became important for adding highlights; not something you do with watercolor since it is so transparent that you have to preserve light areas and not apply them at the end. 

The completed work is not transparent watercolor, so to make this painting come to life my focus was on color, light, and dark.

Comment to let me know if this painting brings back memories for you.   

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'52 Chevy Truck Commission

 

"Wall of Wheels" with April Rimpo's Paintings

 I'm delighted to have three of my paintings hanging in this beautiful home in Arizona. These three paintings were collected starting in 2012 with the center painting titled Department Store. Cycles came along second and the latest addition is '52 Chevy Truck, a commission of their truck resurrected from old family photos.

"Wall of Wheels" in situ

The set is displayed in their dining room which is visible from the front door due to the open floor plan of their beautiful Arizona home. I love that they decided to name their display The Wall of Wheels.  

The new '52 Chevrolet Truck painting started when these friends asked if I would be interested in painting the old family truck. They had been inspired when they saw an image of my painting More Beautiful with Age, which is shown below.

Since I really love painting old rusted cars I thought this project would be right up my alley so I asked them to provide some images of the truck. I received several photos of the truck plus an image of the family brand for me to add to the truck. 

I like to create "sketches" by modifying the images in Photoshop® to create a plan for the painting. It also helps with communications when the client does not live near me, as was the case here.  

There were some features of the truck that were not quite as clear as I like when I am painting, so I searched for 1952 Chevrolet trucks on the Internet. I used the images I found to get a clearer image of the Chevrolet logo on the side, to see the headlights (since they were broken in the family's photos), and to research the mirror which was lying on the hood. I also located a 1952 Chevrolet Truck color chart and asked which was the original color and whether they would like a bit of that color added back into the painting. 

All this research resulted in a few more discussions and images from the family of the truck with the mirror in its upright position and other views that better showed the front grill. I created a sketch with the mirror in place, but the family felt it was distracting and I agreed. Additional adjustments were made to the surroundings; for example, one less silo and the removal of some farming equipment that they thought might also be distracting.

Wyoming license plates were the last thing I researched to see some of the details. Although I found the version of license plate shown in their photos, I also found a 1952 vintage Wyoming truck plate. I shared my discovery and the family liked the idea of using the vintage plate. So I integrated this longer and narrower plate on the truck using Photoshop to position it properly on the grill and change the numbers to match those in the original photograph. With these revisions the family was happy and I was authorized to proceed. 

More Beautiful with Age by April M Rimpo

With a completed design I could then relax and enjoy the painting. I did add back into the truck some of the original Cherry Red paint which really helped make the image pop. This commission was a real joy to create and I'm happy to report their reaction to the delivered painting could not have made me happier. And here's what they said about the commission process, "You made this process so easy for us and we knew we could trust you with the details. Perfect is the word that describes the whole process."

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More Beautiful with Age, 22" X 29 watercolor

More Beautiful with Age watercolor by April M. Rimpo

More Beautiful with Age

Watercolor

22" X 29" image

29" X 36" brushed silver frame

$1400

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.  I suspect that when we were driving down the road in Vermont looking for a covered bridge my husband never expected me to ask him to turn around and go back for a couple of old rusting cars in a field.  The car closest to the road is the one that caught my eye, but as I walk across the field I discovered there were actually three cars.  The one shown here was not the one that initially caught my eye.  However as I wandered from one car to the next I found the interlacing of the flowers with this car to be the most compelling. There is something about these kinds of contrasts that often draw my attention.

I find just about anything can be an inspiration for a painting.  My husband has apparently learned this with time because he no longer questions me about why we had to drive back to a given place.  I hope this is because he likes the result when I finally get around to doing the painting, but it may simply be easier to go along with it than to challenge my inspiration.

I have even found when traveling with other artists that what draws my eye is not the same things that draws their eye.  I went for a drive one late afternoon with a fellow artist who was taking the same workshop as I.  We were out getting the lay of the land with no particular destination, so I kept stopping to take pictures of the birds, landscape, houses, whatever caught my eye.  As we were returning to the hotel where we were staying I stopped one more time to photograph an egret in the marsh.  She had not seen the bird and mentioned how amazed she was at all the things I see; especially since I was the one driving. You may be thinking you don’t want to be anywhere near me when I am driving; that I am a road hazard.  Well I think I am safer than other artists I know, since I do this in very rural locations and I do pull over to the side of the road to take the pictures.  A short walk to get back to the location is not unusual.  I know some of my artist friends have actually figured out how to take pictures when driving down the highway.  Yikes!   I guess it is all relative.

Well I hope the crazy inspiration for this painting makes you smile and maybe even takes you to a place in your past.  Let me know about what inspires your work.

If this painting really "tickles your fancy" and you might like the original or a print contact April.  Samples of some of my limited edition prints are available in my online shop.