I am having a love affair with Yupo paper.

This paper is used in commercial printing and is actually a kind of plastic. This means it does not soak up water so a watercolor painting sits on top of the page and dries only when the water evaporates.

I'm working on a few different techniques, but so far I am having luck with a mixture of loads of paint, little water, plastic wrap for texture and sprinkles of sea salt.

The plastic wrap put on wet paint creates some very interesting and unexpected shapes. You can either let it dry (takes ages) and then remove the plastic... or you can remove it while the paint is still wet. The painting showed uses the latter technique. What I like about it is the unexpected swooshes of color mixes that you get by removing the sopping wet plastic wrap. Then while it's still super wet I throw on some salt and let it set for a while. I come back when it's partially dry and work in more wet color and then pick up the sides of the paper and allow it to drip across the page creating rivulets of color.

This one, once it was finished, really reminded me of a growing thing - moss or algae or maybe something seen at a molecular level. I decided to title it "Algae".

I really think this style and techniqe has potential for some amazing large scale paintings... stay tuned!

Pictured above, "Algae".