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These paintings develop from a fascination with watercolour: the marks, textures, edges, deposits; all the peculiar characteristics of the medium. Watercolour is unlike any other type of paint. It has a far wider vocabulary of qualities. It can be transparent or opaque, sedimentary or clear. Colour can be built as overlays, solid blocks, or in solutions which separate and shimmer, with each individual pigment displaying a personality of its own.
The vocabulary can be extended by preparing the surface. Different types of paper, or underlayering the paint with substances such as gesso or gum, produce new qualities of mark and line and area. Added to these marks, Meridith uses graphite, or occasionally charcoal, as well as fragments of collograph.
Growing out of a desire to produce larger images, coupled with the practical problems of glass and framing weight, Meridith experimented with painting watercolour onto canvas. Excited by the new possibilities, she worked hard to overcome the problems of durability and conservation. The resulting paintings on canvas are sealed with a polymer coating which contains UV filters, and renders the painting no more fragile than a conventional acrylic painting. She has tried acrylic paint, and acrylic inks, and oils and all the rest, but NOTHING produces the same marks as watercolour!
The vocabulary can be extended by preparing the surface. Different types of paper, or underlayering the paint with substances such as gesso or gum, produce new qualities of mark and line and area. Added to these marks, Meridith uses graphite, or occasionally charcoal, as well as fragments of collograph.
Growing out of a desire to produce larger images, coupled with the practical problems of glass and framing weight, Meridith experimented with painting watercolour onto canvas. Excited by the new possibilities, she worked hard to overcome the problems of durability and conservation. The resulting paintings on canvas are sealed with a polymer coating which contains UV filters, and renders the painting no more fragile than a conventional acrylic painting. She has tried acrylic paint, and acrylic inks, and oils and all the rest, but NOTHING produces the same marks as watercolour!
