Texture In Nature

This week at Avon Valley Artists the subject was 'Texture in Nature' As I had been away on holiday when the subject was discussed, I was not sure if we were supposed to be interpreting the texture or painting in a textured way.
I chose to do the later, and took a bit of good-hearted teasing as a consequence.

I decided on a textured painting of grasses.
I started by painting the background, using lots of gold and greens and odd bits of pink. I wet the paper and dropped the colours onto the wet surface and let them do their own thing. My only attempt at control was to try to get the colours to flow in a vaguely diagonal direction across the paper. I added sprinklings of fine table salt and some bits of clingfilm to add textural effects.

I let the sheet dry completely over night before removing the salt and cling film. On arrival at AVA it was decided that maybe the painting was complete at this stage, the colours and textures had worked so well. I might have been tempted, but I had not taken any secondary pieces of paper, so was obliged to stick to my original plan.

I then proceeded to add stems and seed heads using a variety of acrylic and watercolour paint, and I used bits of painted d'oiley to add more texture to the image.
Whilst painting, I did notice that there was a certain lack of translucency in the painting, due in part to the use of the acrylic paint. I tried to overcome this by adding plenty of white back into the image, but I still think it is a bit flat.

It was a surprisingly quick process and so for once I was one of the first to finish, so was able to do the washing up!!

There were some members who still liked the background wash better than the finished piece of work. I think I agreed with them.

                                                                         'Grasses'
                                                              Whatman 300g not paper
                                                                     35cm x 45cm