Aging Through Covid-19, May 05, 2020 – New Watercolor Dancer Figure Art

Little Steps Poster ©Felipe Adan Lerma
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/little-steps-poster-felipe-adan-lerma.html

New Black Absorbent Ground Watercolor 6x6s from Late April 2020
Dancer in Moonlight

My previous two paintings in this series of 3 watercolor gouache on black absorbent ground, Moonlight Goblet and Nude with Robe Night, both elicited some interesting comments and feedback re my process, which I deeply appreciate! ❤️

Dancer in Moonlight is similar, created with M. Graham white gouache, and applied in varying intensities t create shape and form, and of course, ultimately, effect!

I’d mentioned in Nude in Robe Night that certain areas has a less intense black background, almost a scruffy look, created when altering the original line work. In the work below the same process can be seen around the moon. Originally, much larger, the figure and crescent seemed crowded, competing with each other, so I altered the size.

I would have liked having the dancer looking up at the moon, but it just felt weird turned either as positioned now or flipped horizontally. If I add anything else to this painting, it’d be a few stars to the top right, possibly even the Big Dipper. But I haven’t decided yet 😊

I began by sketching in the raised arm, to get a height to better fill the square 6×6 frame, realized I’d made it too large and fluffy-like, so left it and continued with the rest of the figure to get it down while my impulse to do so felt as strong as it did.

Sometimes nothing carries a painting more (for me) than letting my process flow with my feelings, and then fix things, lol!

Doesn’t always work out well that way, but when it does, it’s “very” hard to replicate the intensity of the combination of the two, feelingS and the visual process-process, “later” after delaying to “fix” something. That’s not always true for me either, ie, doesn’t work out.

But when it does, the memory of the mix of feeling and painting with a “good enough” or “wow” finished product, is extremely satisfying for me ❤️

It’s my true creative fix I believe.

So, when I finished the figure, fairly well, even if more sketchy than Nude in Robe Night, the raised fluffy arm felt like it’d taken wing to me. Outstretched, lifting. I left it, as is.

I still think I need something faint in the top right, some stars or such. Tried three, didn’t like ‘em and erased them with water – easy to do if done right away.

Anyway, that finished my set of 3 of this style, white on black.

I began another piece, also a dancer, in color, on white absorbent ground, a few days ago. Liked it, but tinkered with it a little too much. But it’s ok. I wasn’t happy enough with it, or at least the bottom half. I’ve removed most but not all the legs and gonna give it another go tomorrow or as able and will post it when done – if I don’t totally mess it up & chunk it, lol!

And going back to Dancer in Moonlight before I close, I did want to say I felt I got some of the lift of the dancer in the expressiveness, vs a static raised stand, with the up raised face my favorite portion.

I was tempted, for one brief horrible moment, to “improve” the face, and thank God I didn’t, lol! I just love the way the white gouache settled into the black ground and formed these beautiful features I can image onto 💕 It’s not something consciously done. It was lucky. A happy accident as I’ve heard Bob Ross say on the few videos of his work I’ve seen. And happy it happened ☺️

Stay well everyone! Be hopefully vigilant you are making the right decisions, day by day.

It’s the best we can do, and it’ll have to do till we get a vaccine.

And we will ❤️

Adan

*

Series link – Aging Through Covid-19

Do you have good, positive, useful or encouraging info to share? Please post in the moderated comments below 😊

My Related Posts Here On My Blog

My Related Amazon Affiliate Search Products
https://www.amazon.com/shop/felipeadanlerma

My Latest Posts On My Website!

• Sold! At SaatchiArt — Tender is the Night 2024 – With much thanks to my buyer in Brooklyn NY!March 5, 2026
  “Not only am I grateful to my Brooklyn buyer, but also to Saatchi Art that literally navigated me through the ice-storm prolonged process last month here Austin!”
• New Painting Series – Island Land Trail Sunset Vermont 2026 – Gaining Perspective About My Experience of Painting Doing Series of SeriesFebruary 9, 2026
  It’s a welcome surprise to realize how rich one’s life experience can be, even within seemingly single short time frames themselves! I feel this new small study, with its misty soft blues and distant vistas is a nice reflection of that.
• Voter ID – ReVisiting John R. Lewis’ 2021 Voting Rights Proposal That Failed – What’s Different Now – And Why Not Debate it With the Current 2026 Voting Rights – Together?February 3, 2026
  This is a short post I seldom write up. A political post. Understandly so. There’s a lot of the usual “they” don’t want this or that now talk from this or that political party.
• Are We at Our Kent State Moment? – One by One the Women Came and Said, It’s Time 2026 9×12 acrylic on canvas panel – by Adan – @SaatchiArt 😊January 31, 2026
  “I still vividly remember the images on TV 1970 of students my age shot and on the ground during a demonstration against the Vietnam War”
• 1st Cabin Light Finished Painting 2026January 28, 2026
  Saturations of sky and earth roll and rest spin like a first slow dance in junior high – middle school the grandkids laugh and tell me they think I make all this up just to be funny 😊
• 1st Cabin Light Study 2 2025January 24, 2026
  Yes. The new day has begun….
• 1st Cabin Light Study 1 2025January 22, 2026
  I wasn’t sure when to stop but my own waves of self, conscious of the need to rest joined the earth before me, an image shaped by pigments from itself.

*
Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

Twitter / Instagram / FB @FelipeAdanLerma
Amazon Author Page – https://amzn.to/2YpgyUf
Fine Art America (FAA, Pixels) – https://felipeadan-lerma.pixels.com/