watercolor with cut-out,
watercolor with cut-out, 20″x26″
Two year ago, I spent three weeks living in Beijing China, my friend Michael has moved there to work. It was my first time at this fascinating city; I had a wonderful time touring the city, visit places like the forbidden city, Olympic park.. One of the things I was introducing to was the Chinese art of paper-cut they were offered for sale gift shops everywhere and I was attracted with this simple from of art making with just rice- paper and cutting,. However, almost all the ones I seen were the traditional design such of the twelve zodiac animals and the good fortune designs.
After I got home, I decided to give this ancient art a modern twist: I had this idea of using my watercolor paintings and add the paper cut-out into my painting. I first work on my watercolor painting and left out some empty spaces to add my cut-out design later. The cut-out elements would use as the background. After the whole thing was finished I added a white backing and the overall painting it looked very striking and has a graphic looks to it.
At first, I didn’t want to show to anyone because when I was first taught watercolor, I was taught to always keep my paper in perfect condition. For the pure watercolorists cutting up a painting might consider destroying a fine painting.
Months later, when I have finished a number of them, I showed them in an exhibition, the reactions more very positive and I was relived.
alfredngdesign 