Gentle, Gentle

I am not known for being gentle, gentle. This phrase comes from an annual occurrence at Christmas time. No matter how carefully the lights for the tree are packed up in the prior year, they are always a tangled mess when it’s time to put them on this year’s tree. Inevitably when I am trying to untangle them, my spouse will give me that kind, but cautionary, look and say “gentle, gentle”. It makes me smile at the time and throughout the year when it pops into my thoughts when I realize that a situation needs a little gentle, gentle. By the way, he usually gets to be the one to finish untangling the lights.

I am continuing the new watercolor background experiments. I played with a second sheet that I set up like the first one, but the background color was harsh. It got in my way and I don’t like what I did with it or how it turned out.

This one was done in the hand bound book I made from Roz’s online class. I stared with a light outline of a pear in pencil. It’s not a watercolor paper, so I couldn’t lift any color in the dried background. While the color changed in the area where I rewetted, none of the color came up. For a change, I stayed gentle, gentle with adding color, didn’t overwork, and let the water do its thing. I liked the finished product in person much better than the picture.  I like the outline. It’s a combo of the pencil lines and how the watercolor settled. The fact the pear is floating is making me a little crazy, but I think it’s better to leave it, as is.