Watercolor + Gesso = Carla Sonheim

I was recently fortunate to be able to take a class from Carla Sonheim.  She is the coolest, her class was the greatest and I love the funky animals I created out of mixing and messing gesso and watercolors.

Carla can see animals in ANYTHING...sidewalk cracks, blobs of paint.  She told us to let the random shapes guide us.  The trouble was, I couldn't decide if this was a bird or a fish...so I kind of made it a flying fish...or a swimming bird.

For this one she passed around silly stuffed animals and had us sketch at the speed of light.  I was amazed that my painting actually looked like...a dog.

Here's another one that we created from a sidewalk crack. Unless my sidewalk was on another planet I'm not sure this creature really exists, but I like how it turned out.

I realized I am somewhat indecisive when it comes to reading the blobs.  This was started out being the back of a rabbit..see the right ear sticking up and the little puffy tail?

The only problem is that the more I looked at it, the more it looked like a person doing yoga...arms forward, with one leg bent and the other stretched out somewhat painfully.

Remember that optical illusion...It's a beautiful woman in a hat!  It's an old hag!  It's a beautiful woman in a hat!  It's an old hag!

Who cares?  Either way, it's a WAY cool technique from a WAY cool artist.  In a nutshell, take a class from Carla whenever you have the chance.