Watercolor

Colorado artist Dale Russell Smith spent years developing a range of techniques that allow him to balance free expression with tight control. Among those procedures is coating his watercolor paper with gum arabic.   by M. Stephen Doherty North Rim, Black Canyon2004, watercolor, 20 x 25. Courtesy Surface Creek Winery & Gallery, Eckert, Colorado. Gum arabic is the natural, nontoxic gum used as the binder in watercolor paints; and it is also sold separately as one of several mediums that can be used to adjust either the properties of the paint or of the watercolor paper. For example, it can…