10th Street Spring

The trees on our street are looking so amazing...all the little leaves coming unfurled. Everything's so colorful and miraculous after the tough winter we had. Yes, I know, it happens every year, Spring...yet it really does feel like a miracle.

This mini (4" x 4") painting reflects some of that color: the acid greeney-yellows of willows, and the dark peach of new maples.

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Stunned by the sun.

Okay, now a question for you watercolorists (and others) out there. I've been trying to figure out how to remove (almost) all the pastel from PastelMat when I want to get rid of a painting. PastelMat, like most specialty pastel papers, is very expensive, so it's desirable not to have to actually toss it in the trash when abandoning a painting effort.

If I use a paint brush, I can get most of the pastel off, but not enough to really start over.

So...I tried washing it all off with water. This seems pretty effective, but the PastelMat dries buckled. I tried damp PastelMat under heavy boxes...still somewhat buckled.

So...I decided to think like a watercolorist, and try some of this gummy-tape stuff I had sitting around meant for watercolor paper, and which I had never had occasion to try to use before (I have some watercolor supplies but virtually never use any of them). You get the gummed-paper-tape damp and then (messily) tape down your wet paper so it will dry flat overnight.

Voila, it seems to have dried quite flat. But...I can't figure out how to get it off! It is stuck to and holding on to that watercolor board like grim death. Without taking an X-acto knife to the whole thing and destroying the stretching board in the process, I'm stumped.

Suggestions?

$115.00 - Tenth Street Spring (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com