Origins: Revelation

Materials

• Arches 140# hot press watercolor paper
• Creepy Cobwebs-threaded dacron cobwebs used for Halloween decoration
• Lighfast inks (including white)
• White gouache paint
• Natural and geometric cutouts for painting resists

• Transparent watercolors
• Watercolor pencils
• Gatorboard
• Spray bottles for the inks
• Windex
• Pushpins

1Beckwith begins by attaching two sheets of watercolor paper to a piece of gatorboard with push pins. Creepy Cobwebs are stretched tautly over the surface and attached with push pins. The surface and webbing are sprayed with water and any excess water is poured off. Working quickly, Beckwith sprays lightfast inks onto the paper and cobwebs. The colors flow along the webs to create a rich variety of colors. During the painting process, she gently rewets and presses any cobwebs that lift from the watercolor surface.

2Beckwith sprays additional layers of ink on the wet painting. She carefully mops large pools of ink off the painting, while smaller pools are left on the surface and encouraged to run by tilting the gatorboard. The paint courses along the strands of webbing intensifying the color where the webbing touches the surface and causing further color mixing.