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Bog Candle
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I was going to do one of the other essences sent by Alaskan Flower Essence Manufacturers first because I had more information and images available but the bog candle orchid essence would have none of that. It wanted to be first. It almost was saying ME, ME!! Choose me first. Thoughts of dark and light boggy mists, damp illumination and going deep took over my thoughts. The bog candle essence is not quite as dark to work with as I thought it would be. I, personally, am going deeper internally with reviews of my life to date, purges of old hurts and sorrows, than the |
| painting depicts. Bog Candle likes to hold the pigment
still, then run like the devil with the pigment just when you give
up trying to make it move. It runs like hanging moss on old trees.
It does not spread or saturate but runs in long lines. In its own
way it is really quite joyful and freeing to work with. I don’t
have a sense of frustration but more of a glow, ease and anticipation
of the new way of working. It makes me feel brave and daring to
explore the dark. There is no fear in the shadows but more of "
what is in there curiosity?" What I find it to be is intriguing.
It excites the interest or curiosity of, fascinates. Murky, with extreme clarity. In other words, polar opposites present themselves with this essence. It becomes a challenge to find the middle ground. In watercolor work this is not fun. When I mean challenge, I mean Challenged. We are at the apex as to whether this painting is going to work or not and I am not so sure who is going to prevail. It is all about the middle ground. The bog candle wants to keep the tension of the opposites but to have a successful painting I have to reconcile that. Another example of these polar opposites is the way the pigment sits on the paper. It is rich and deep in color but it does not saturate the paper. It sits on top in heavy concentration. I had the need to remove too much dark that I had put on the trees in the foreground of the BOG. I really thought this would be an act of futility because of the deep color I was seeing. Instead the pigment came off so easily with just the swipe of a wet brush. In watercolor, the pigments are stains and dyes that will not come off the paper for the most part. The bog candle essence made the removal of the dark, dark pigment a dream and left a soft, glow- like tint. |
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| Today was sweet. This essence is very sweet in nature. The False Hellebore puts you at ease almost too carefree on the paper. You can trust it not to go too far. So many of the other essences just take off on you but this seems to be just right. If you come back and add more essence water to the pigment after letting is sit, the essence still will move the pigment on the paper quite readily. This is unusual for a stain. This essence is very gentle in every way. It is gentle when you take it and gentle in its approach to bringing release |
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| of false concepts . It is gentle in the reminders
of the past that come up as the essence helps you to balance the
old with the new. I have not, to date, experienced facing the deep
fears, although I have been taking false hellebore for two weeks
now. But today is my first paint. There is a kind clarity with false hellebore in so much as, what ever it was; now you can see that it was false but that it is okay. It was how it needed to be in order to make it to this point of discovery about the very falseness of the matter. The false in False Hellebore must come from being able to face your own false conceptions with gentleness and release. The essence is very clear and does not affect the pigment color. In this way, it is a lot like clear spring water without any essence in it. The essence of Wild Rose adjusted the pigment color quite a bit by dulling it out. This essence is not pretentious and does not assume to lead like Queen Ann’s Lace, which most certainly does. This essence is very comforting in its way. King Salmon, California is a low income, trailer park existence but with an atmosphere of calm and sweet geography. It sets between the south jetty of Humboldt Bay and Highway 101. The beach I sit at to paint is the smallest beach in the county. Yet its protection from relentless North West winds is a rare find. Much like False Hellebore, it puts a fine patina on all the sorted rough sides of life. |
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Valerian 1
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Rock a bye, Baby in the tree top When the bough breaks the cradle shall drop This essence lulls you into resignation. This is definitely inner peace and acceptance. There begins to exist a relationship with oneself outside of everyone else. Especially good for those looking to find approval from others instead of seeking self acceptance. You are forced to look inward. I am bolstering the valerian essence with self-heal and now celebrate my individual-ism both as a person and as an artist. I have shut out the noise of criticism and opened to acceptance. Baby steps equals Valerian in that you can’t force it or rush it. Just one little baby step at a time as you look into the reflection to heal the Narcissi Wound. The reflection is opposite of the reflector. You honor the opposite in you to find the missing self & self. Love. Valerian paints up brighter than normal. Considering it is used for calming people down, I find it incredulous that is it so pinky bright, but then I remember about polar opposites. It reminds me of the carnation essence I worked with. Valerian changes the tones of the pigment. They are very clear, almost florescent in color. I have to be careful in this landscape not to turn it into fantasy- scape. The essence is cooperative and playful, willing to take a few risks. The color is altered, by vibration, to be more vibrant, like Day Glow Play Dough. The reflection and |
| absorption are in altered state from which we are accustomed, as 2003 humans, to seeing. Keep in mind that Aristotle only described three colors of the rainbow, not the five we see today. The pigments tend to float on the water and not absorb quickly so you can move the pigment around more freely. Even to the point of changing your mind about the color placement. This is unheard of in tap water watercolor work. If you put the color down with tap water, there it stays. Both the Bog Candle and the Valerian were accommodating in this way. | |
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| I had an extra sheet of watercolor paper soaked with Valerian, so I decided to use it up on a project my son asked me to do. I was fore warned about the electric color of Valerian from the first painting. This time I just used tap water and the soaked paper instead of adding more Valerian to the pigment with the brush. Bam, there was that torcked color again. I had been painting with other essences since using Valerian with very satisfactory results with regard to color manipulation. There was none at all with Tiffany rose from Crystal Radiance Manufactures. But…. Valerian has a distinctcolor process of it’s own. It is electric, high |  |
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| frequency and very odd compared to our contemporary color wheel colors. Even not using it with additional essence added by brush created challenges in taming the color enough to be passable for the project. | ||
