5 . 23 . 2016   Watercolor on #400 weight Arches' rough paper.  On this painting I cut off all the excess paper leaving just the 9 1/2" x 13" image, and then secured it to another sheet of heavy watercolor paper using heavy gel medium.  The gel medium works really well in holding the painting down without any lifting.  Next is to mount it into a 1/4" thick mat.  I like to have the mat opening larger so that the painting floats in the opening with a 1/2" spacing around the edges....  I don't finish all my work in this fashion though and will often just do the standard double mats.  The finished matted painting will be similar to the ones pictured in the below blog entries..