Kissing the Dragon : Seahorse in Watercolour

 "Kissing the Dragon"

Seahorse in watercolour

I am from Wales and I grew up believing in dragons. Fierce, magical creatures that could protect or harm you. Depending on whether they were good dragons or not. Of course you wouldn't know if a dragon was friendly or not until it was too late but for some unknown reason I always imagined kissing one as a child. Perhaps years later, having seen so many animated films of dragons my imagination sees dragons nowadays as cute monsters rather than scary beasts. But I had always thought dragons would be rather magnificent if ever I really saw one.

And so over the years whenever I have been fortunate enough to see a sea horse I have thought of them as dragons in miniature form. I am putting together a fabulous programme for my future workshops where colour does so much for a subject and composition. This new painting was fantastic to work on and my recent experimental techniques have really come to play in the piece.

 Close up of a dragon

To be completely honest I didn't know I was going to paint a dragon today. I played with my daily warm up washes and in one saw a seahorse and here it is. I rather like it and this could be the beginning of an exciting new series of paintings. Who knows. Perhaps there was magic to be found in "kissing the dragon" as I feel magic happening right now in this piece. I think it is a lucky painting in that it is one that has touched my soul in a rather unusual way. I feel exhilarated simply from painting it while thinking of the folklore I heard as a child and realising that many folk stories relate to life. A dragon could represent a person. People can be ogres or not but perhaps it is wiser to stay clear of the ferocious ones. As in negative attitudes. I warm to happy people who make you feel great.

But this type of dragon is welcome in my studio anytime!

A dragon at play!

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Please note: experimental work requires good quality watercolour paper for it to be successful. Which is why I use Saunders Waterford paper. It allows me to have so much fun with my art!