Three Fish

This watercolor captures three colourful fish. It was created on a specially treated paper that brings out the pigments' brilliance. The paper, a traditional type used for watercolor, has been treated with gesso, a brilliant white liquid traditionally used to prepare canvas for oil painting. When applied to watercolor paper, gesso creates a glossy surface that resists water. Also, the gesso takes on the texture of the tool used to apply it; in this case, that tool was a large, coarse brush like those used for painting walls, which created highly textured vertical lines across the entire paper surface. Because the gesso resists water, the paint sits right on the surface instead of soaking into the paper, which makes the pigments brighter and more intense than they would be on regular watercolor paper.