My Parents’ 50th

I had been thinking for years that I would do a piece for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. It came together very differently than I thought it would. The first thing was that they decided against using lots of small symbols to represent their lives and family. They ended up choosing one, the eight pointed star, or seal of Melchizedek. I remembered a watercolor class I took several years ago with a Cincinnati artist, Sandy Maudlin. In the technique I learned, progressively darker washes go down over the entire paper one at a time and light areas to be preserved are masked off with small torn pieces of masking tape. The paint seeps under the torn edges of tape creating a batik look. I rubbed some gum sandarac over the dried watercolor and lettered the names with Fine Tec gold watercolor. I added some duo red-blue Pearl Ex and some 23k gold leaf.