Family Stained Glass, Original Watercolor by Rober Walczak ©2011

This painting is adaptation of a stained glass window in a church in Florida. The original ws painted on a type of paper called Yupo. Yupo is similiar to glossy photo paper, quite unlike the usual 300 lb cold pressed watercolor paper I normally use. in fact its not paper at all, its a smooth plastic. Plastic doesnt absorb pigment, one challange. The other challange was to make this look like stained glass which I was able to do by addition alot of extra gum arabic to the pigment. Gum arabic is the binder used in watercolor pigments to make it "liquid".
I painted this as a Christmas Card for family and friends and added several symbols that provided a message for each member of my family on the "blocks" on the outside of the painting.