About Calico
Calico was the first signature for my beginning artwork. Once I gained confidence, I moved to signing my own name.
Q & A:
When did you begin painting?
I've been doing watercolour painting since 2014, two years after retiring from a teaching career. I had never done any art before this.
How did you learn to paint?
I took classes -a community based with City of Edmonton, some from ELLA (Edmonton Lifelong Learning Association) with Frances Alty Arscott and Suzanne Lamoureux . Willie Wong has taught me many techniques. Mostly, I studied online with YouTube and several online classes.
What were the biggest influences for your learning?
Learning from other artists - my children, my instructors, of course. But mostly, by using the web. Pinterest became a way to collect the styles of watercolour I loved- loose, abstract, great colour combinations. Specific artists became inspirational: Jean Haines, Pablo S. Herrero, Keith Nash, Chantal Jodin, Branislav Markovic Umbra, Nancy Knight, Fernando Zobel, Z. L. Feng, and Maria Ginzburg. YouTube let me watch the masters use their brushes and composing their paintings.
What is your current passion?
Granulating watercolours is my current interest and research project. I use Daniel Smith watercolour paints and have made a chart of the granulating colours and am currently mixing these paints to find out which combinations cause the biggest 'wow' effect.
Calico defined
Calico Cat - a cat with patterns of 3 colours - white with orange (or red or reddish-brown) and black (or grey or blue)
Calico Fabric - a plain-woven textile made from unbleached and often not fully processed cotton
Calico Art - watercolour art on blank rough paper with many original colour patterns