Mary McAndrew

Sometimes it’s hard to be an artist. Let me explain, I have been thinking about how much I want to try to paint the moon at night, in the dark using a tiny light. I’ve never done it before so the other night when the moon was streaming through my window, I had to get back out of bed and go to the studio to get my paints!! Yes…it’s difficult to be an artist, but fun!! For the above painting I used liquid mask to block the moon, which I don’t use much but wanted to play with. Then I worked wet into wet with the colors. Now keep in mind I said before I wanted to work in the dark so I could see the moon still, so I took a tiny reading light and clipped it onto my neck collar of my t-shirt. (Um…did anyone ever tell you artists were kind of nuts? haha) I pointed the light down at my painting, it was a neat experiment.
Above you can see my tiny watercolor kit I put together. On the left is a pack of assorted brushes that I cut the handles down on so they are smaller and fit in my field bag, above that is the reading light. In the center is my field kit of watercolors that I have tucked into a tiny Altoids tin, I use the lid for mixing my colors. Above the kit is a plastic vitamin bottle that I use for water; I like this container because I can get my brushes down into it for swishing around, but it also fits in my waterbottle holder that I can put around my waist for field work. And next to all that, on the far right is a new little invention of mine, it’s a tiny cigar case my friend Mark gave me. I told him I like little containers to play around with for field stuff….I know, I sound like a little kid! Well….if you don’t think creatively and play, you don’t think of great ideas!
I cut up little squares of watercolor paper to fit inside the cigar case, it holds about 14 sheets of paper, I also put in some bristol board to play with. The sheets measure only 3 1/2″ x 3″….kind of fun to work on if you keep it simple. I then took two paper clips and bent them so they go over the edge and hold down the paper while you work. You can see how tiny the kit is as it fits right into my hand! Below is the tiny moon painting I did, I like it!! For this one I didn’t use liquid mask and it show the moon for how it really was, it wasn’t full like I showed above.I hope you enjoyed my post about my experimental moon painting! Remember I did it in the dark, it was fun! I will bring this kit with me when I travel to England and Ireland and play around with it. Please let me know what you think and leave me a comment!