Gut Instinct!

Gut instinct, in German (Bauch Gefühl) is really important in life and in art. How many times have people suggested doing things or going places and your gut instinct tells you ''nope'' but you do it anyway and ...... disaster strikes. Lousy restaurants, bad dates, terrible hairdos (my daughter always says I have one of the worst selections of disastrous dos, ever!) you know the kind of thing! Well I had one of those disasters this week. 

I have a fabulous artist friend who is older than me but is so experimental and adventurous that it makes me feel like a boring old fuddy duddy. Having sent me yet another video of grasses being done with alchohol wash, if you read my blog you probably know that I'm a) obsessed with grasses and negative space and b) probably more importantly I hate alcohol washes; just washes, I have nothing against a good tipple at all. A good stiff G&T has saved me from losing my sanity on numerous occasions! Where is all this leading to, this! 

White holes on Sennelier Pastelcard 

This is my latest work in progress and as usual on my favourite support, Sennelier Pastelcard (LaCarte) and those white blobs are where the sanded surface  has dissolved having applied gin as an alcohol wash. 

My gut told me it was a bl..dy stupid idea, it was screaming ''don't'' go there, PastelCard, fabulous as it is cannot be used wet, which is perfect for me. Why can’t it be used wet? Because the special sanded surface dissolves; do I know this? Yes, of course, why did I do it then? Beat me, it was my birthday and I was feeling old and boring. 

Lessons learned, experiment not on large works in progress, but on leftovers or scraps of paper. When your gut tells you ''Nope'', it’s telling you for a reason. 

PS. If this or something similar happens to you on PastelCard you can either repair it by adding pumice to the missing areas and working on top or with a good spray of Fixative then work on top as usual. Done, sorted! Pity it wasn't as easy to fix the dreadful hairdos that I had, the Kelly McGillis perm in Top Gun for one, it looked fab till I washed it than I looked very similar to Bob Ross!