Monday February 14, 2010 Valentines Day

Another day of working on the Red Shoe Book Project. The little pair of shoes in the painting above seem to go with the words written by Ase Lilleskare Faugstad, a wonderful Norwegian artist, "The first "best" shoes I wore." I love the thought that this little girl slipped her feet into the red shoes early. And she loved those shoes and she kept those red shoes.

I wanted to speak about the method I have chosen to paint the paintings of the Red Shoes. I have chosen watercolor, first because it is a tradition that is often used by women, or thought of as painting for women. And it wasn't until male artists began using watercolor that is was considered a "real" medium. Still today, the use of watercolor is looked down upon, when everyone knows it is a very difficult medium, and takes many years to accomplish. There are many ways to execute watercolor, but I have chosen to draw. And the drawing is not "right", but rather expressive, and to wet the paper and allow the watercolor to do the work, leaving lots of white paper, and even this requires much care, not to splash watercolor where you don't want it(This isn't easy for me, I get so into what I'm doing, I forget about the splashes and drips.).