self

Velké Losiny Moldau watercolor, 30" x 22".

all right ladies, quit your grinnin' and drop your linen. time to make some paintings.

actually i painted this just back from the caribbean. but it's a good way to start out the year.

for those of you who haven't yet tried the "moldau" watercolor paper, you're in for a treat. the furnish is cotton and linen, with a bright rattle; the paper has a clean white color and a subtle but wide wove texture. holds the paint on the surface and all paints, even "staining" paints like dioxazine violet or green gold, lift easily. it is one of my favorites.

i clipped this sheet to a large plywood support and freehanded the portrait in the studio bathroom mirror. background is quinacridone gold (the real thing, not the "hue" substitutes), torso is dioxazine violet; i think the flesh mixture is pyrrole orange, burnt sienna and gold ochre but i can't be sure. red accents are cadmium scarlet.