Wednesday, June 24, 2009


'La Iglesia' ~ 'The Church'
Acuarela / Watercolor
Tamano / Size: 15cm x 10cm / 6" x 4"


I've using my watercolors this week with two goals in mind. First, it's been several years since I've done any watercolor (embarrassing since I'm a juried member of the Puerto Rican Watercolor Society) and, second, I wanted to work with dramatic light which I want to incorporate into my monochromatic woodcuts.

This is part of Old San Juan's historic San Jose Church, built in 1606, and one of two Gothic churches on the island. I love the play of light at high noon on old Puerto Rican buildings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He estado pintando con acuarela esta semana con dos propositos. Primero, ha sido varios anos que no lo hago (aunque soy miembra de la Asociacion Acuarelista de Puerto Rico) y segundo queria trabajar con luz dramatica para incorporarla en los disenos monocromaticos de mis grabados en madera.


Este es parte de la Iglesia de San Jose del Viejo San Juan, construido en 1606, y uno de solo dos iglesias goticas en la isla. Me encanta la luz de mediodia vista en las paredes de los edificios antiguos de Puerto Rico.


7 comments:

Terry Sargent Peart said...

Diane, the colors, especially the sky, are very intense. I love the sky!
I'm not very good at watercolor, but isn't it very difficult to get such a consistent flow? I'm impressed.

Barbara Carr said...

Lovely little watercolor, Diane. It will make a great woodcut, too!

d. moll, l.ac. said...

Yes, it is gorgeous and I thought it WAS a woodcut at first.

Diane Cutter said...

Terry, thanks. Basically an even wash isn't that hard but there are a couple of tricks.

First, make a puddle of watercolor, enough to do 3-5 passes with the brush. This is because you have to work fast.

Second, tilting the paper slightly so gravity pulls the excess in the direction you are painting, run a loaded brush back and forth. When doing this, you need to just touch the tip of the brush to the paper, leaving a ridge of watercolor that you keep going as you work down the sheet.

You can either go back in after the paint has dried and do it again but I prefer to go right back to the start and do another couple of passes. The first pass uses up the most paint and subsequent passes less so because the paper has absorbed a lot of moisture and just picks up the pigment.

Barbara and d. moll... I'm actually working on a print right now. It's only going to be one color so it will be interesting to see how it comes out.

Annie B said...

When I first saw this painting I too thought it might be a woodblock. I really love the composition and the contrast between the intense blue of the sky and the pastel colors of the church. I look forward to seeing the woodcut.

TJ said...

I love your watercolor of the church. You really captured that mid-day sun effect. Glad I found your blog!

Diane Cutter said...

TJ... Thanks for the visit. I love your recent water lillies... a stunning painting!

Dayana... thank you!