Loose!!

As Craig Revell Horwood would say, FAB-U-LOUS!! Louise, this is so exciting, and full of movement, vibrancy and dynamism. I absolutely love it. Did you do the white lines with masking fluid?

P.S. And do you have tube paints in these colours - most of them look too clear and fresh to have been mixed?

Hi Caroline. For the fine white lines I dipped a length of thread in masking fluid and dragged it quickly across the paper. For extra fine lines, use cotton. I'm a bit random when it comes to paint and couldn't really tell you my exact colours. I tend to just add a bit of colour to the mix at random and hope for the best! The base wash was mostly my favourite naples yellow and that bright pink is permanent rose (artist's quality). The sky wasn't working so I re-wet it and and added white gouache letting the paint run into the wet areas. I do feel that it's important to use clean water and brushes and let each coat of paint dry before adding more colour. This goes to explain why I'm on this site rather a lot, I'm waiting for the paint to dry!!

Your previous painting was great, but I am with Caroline. This one is exciting! Are you going to keep secret your entry to RA or ....! My next project is my watercolour self-portrait ....

Agree with the above, one of your best.

Love that stormy sky comimg up, great effect. It all works well.

Bright, dynamic atmospheric.

Just beautiful. Why don't you let your hair down (metaphorically of course) and apply a similar technique to your portraits. On second thoughts, don't: we could all pack up and go home if you did!

Many thanks Gudrun (yes!) Glennis, Carole, Roger and Kim. I appreciate all your comments. Also, Kim, applying this loose technique to a self portrait would make me look ancient. A dribbly face wouldn't be a good look! ..I'm too vane LOL

What a great sky, a storm brewing ? and I like yor dribbles :)

Beautiful! Very powerful ..... a wave is just about to break over a long beach........!

Hit me with a very hard object if I'm wrong and should remember, but do you ever work in acrylic? Your combination of watercolour here with gouache made me wonder. And if you ever feel like a walk on the wild side - and bear in mind I've never done it myself and don't, frankly, intend to - have you thought of trying egg tempera? I ask because I have a suspicion you'd take off in very interesting directions if you did - the thinness of the paint, the glazing techniques, the strong colour, and the intricate drawing and modelling of forms, suggest to me that this might be, to borrow a chief executive's well-meant but entirely inappropriate phrase, "right up your pigeon".

Wonderful paint handling and great sweeping composition. As an abstract it has strength and purpose and allows the viewer to put their own interpretation on the scene. For some reason I feel that I am looking down from a mountain to a motorway cutting through the valley . I am sure others will see something completely different, but that is the measure of a good painting in that it allows the viewer to be engaged with it.

Another great piece, Louise. How big is this one? Do you mount/frame your work?

Many thanks Val, Helen, Avril, Robert, Thea and Lionel. Robert, I like the look of egg tempera and believe that you can buy it ready made nowadays. I certainly haven't the patience to mix it myself. I've never tried acrylics. I love watercolour which never fails to surprise me. Lionel, this is the same size as the last one, (when I promised to try a larger size which is still in the pipeline!) I won't be framing these two abstracts as they're more or less just ideas for a larger painting but ones that I'm happy with get mounted and framed and I exhibit in two Manchester galleries.

Louise that's really helpful, thank you, I wouldn't have thought of doing that with masking fluid. Congratulations on all the great comments, well deserved.

Neither would I Caroline, I read it somewhere.. LOL