Exploring a new painting surface with watercolor

One of my awards for placing a 3rd in the Sierra Watercolor Society judged show last September, was a 12 x 16 Aquabord by Ampersand.  I decided to try the splatter and poured painting methods I learned in Lian Zhen's class last year.  In my blog slideshow is a painting of peonies from his workshop.  I'm SO glad I am a note-taking freak, because I have forgotten how I did that painting!  After reviewing my notes, I printed photos of peonies I took, and drew a composition on this new board.  One flower is supposed to be the "diva", so we were supposed to draw it in detail and mask the edges with liquid mask.  Then do a series of water spray, splatter with paint, fingerpaint, drop paint in with a brush, tilt the surface and let it run ... all kinds of fun stuff where you trade in control for serendipity.

Here is the beginnings of this process on this board.  Very interesting!  Although it doesn't come out the same as Arches coldpress paper, it does accept the watercolor in a nice way. 

...to be continued...