Feeling Peckish

Be inspired to paint blues with contrasting hot colours with Jean Haines.

'It is far too easy to get stuck in a rut, readily repeating what we know in each of our paintings, choosing familiar subjects or colours,' says Jean.

'And when we do we risk missing out on much that is exciting in the world of watercolour and creativity can be lost, which can lead to dull work.

'There is absolutely nothing wrong in being repetitive, but picking up a brush can be much more thrilling when you are working with completely new ideas and products.

'I experiment, explore and adore working in watercolour, pushing the boundaries of what I know whilst constantly looking for something new and even more wonderful to try, whether it is product, technique or new subjects.

'At the beginning of the year I set myself challenges of finding completely new subjects, to stretch myself as an artist and to improve my skills of observation, not only from the subject itself but from the colours I see, that can be used in my work.

'I never use a preliminary sketch as I find this restricting. I paint by choosing a starting point, and work away from this.'

Discovering blues

I'd like to share a few blue shades that I have added to my palette from the Daniel Smith range of watercolours. They are vibrant, exciting and totally delicious to work with.

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I placed dots of each colour on Saunders Watercolour Paper, 300lbs (640gsm) Rough surface and merged each with water so that the paper became the palette for my blue paintings (see below).

This is a technique I often use when trying out new colours. By doing this I can easily see how each pigment works directly on paper, how it flows and interacts.

In the past I have been addicted to indigo. However, when indigo dries, it seems to be very dull, killing the vibrancy I strive to achieve in my painting.

I am delighted to discover the Daniel Smith Mayan dark blue works well with my technique and also dries to a beautiful strong colour.

The Daniel Smith cobalt teal blue was beautiful to work with on the kingfisher (below). The contrast of vibrant orange against the beautiful blue feathers is such a fantastic effect in watercolour, to the point that when working with glorious colour combinations the subject almost takes second place rather than being my main focus.

It is these fabulous additions of hot colours that help me beat the blues in paintings where my main colour choices are violets or blues.

Kingfisher

In the past I depended on colours I knew well such as cobalt blue, cerulean blue, French ultramarine blue and indigo. Now I never accept that the colours I am using cannot be improved, added to or be more exciting.

Negative Blue Light

I challenge myself to find new colours and research colour combinations or ways of working to make each new discovery more thrilling. For example have become far more dynamic. I now paint with my new-found blue shades, layering them on top of violet first washes that act as backgrounds to the simple white flowers of snowdrops (see above and below).

Negative Blue

It is possible to achieve darks in watercolour and keep them alive and fresh. It is possible to achieve drama in watercolour by careful selection of colours and technique. But for me it seems impossible to know all there is to know about colour.

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