30 Paintings In 30 Days By Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Leada Wood, Watercolor, Mixed Media, Collage

 

 

 

Misty Morning ©Leada Wood, 2015

 

Day 10 of the 30-30 challenge.

Misty Morning is a Batik watercolor created with wax, watercolor and a very transparent, handcrafted paper.  Look closely and you can see the fibers of the paper... I like the texture it gives to a painting.

Best Of Show, by Leada Wood, Contemporary Texas Artist

Today was the West Texas Art Guild's annual Regional Big Country art show and I was thrilled beyond measure when I found out I won Best of Show. 

The painting Sunflower 2 is a batik on Unryu paper which is a little bit thicker than tissue paper. I draw the subject on the paper with sharpie pen and then save the parts I want to be light or white with wax. Proceeding on with either watercolor or liquid acrylics I complete the painting and coat the entire painting with wax, let it dry and crumple it up in a ball. If the painting survives this I flatten it and push paint down into the crevices. Then it is wax off and I remove the wax. It is quite an involved process and a risky technique...but isn't that what making art is all about...taking chances?

"Cosmos" by Leada Wood, Contemporary Texas Artist

Beginnings

It's All In The Crumple!



The Happy Ending! "Cosomos" by Leada Wood©

Faux Batik is fun in watercolor...but in Acrylic it is indescribable! The paper I use is a Japanese paper, a little heavier than tissue paper but still transparent with pieces of fiber running through it and delicate. When you are finished with the painting you apply a special mixture of waxes all over the painting and then crumple it up...then you apply a color of paint over the wax and it goes into the crevices...hopefully. When that is all finished you iron the wax out of your painting and what is left is a beautiful faux batik effect.