Watercolour, 1998.

This is the second in a group of watercolour portraits I painted at around this time. I did not use an aibrush for this one but instead tried a rather "dry" application of watercolour.

Dry watercolour sounds like an oxymoron but actually describes a technique. Watercolour is often applied quite wet, where the colours are allowed to "bleed" together on a wet paper, but this is suitable for a more spontaneous and less controlled style. By temperament, I gravitate toward a more organized and controlled style, therefore the "dry" technique. In some areas of this painting, where I wanted to show only a faint hint of pigment, the colour was simply dabbed on with a tissue that was barely moistened with colour.