About 12 years ago, I remember being amazed when I learned that salt can alter a watercolor painting in unique, often favorable ways. for example, when salt is added to slightly wet paper, it creates interesting distortions, but not the unwanted kind – like blossoms, which often form if too much water is added. Most commonly, salt is applied to create beautiful alterations when painting a snowy winter sky. It is also used effectively, to create interesting background washes in floral watercolor paintings. However, I almost never use salt in my paintings, but maybe I should rethink that and keep it in my painting tool belt, metaphorically speaking.

Anyway, the reason I brought this whole salt thing up is because I thought it would make an interesting painting video. I was not surprised to find that there are already many videos on YouTube, demonstrating how to use salt in watercolor paintings. So, why post another salt painting video? Well, Caitlin came up with a pretty cool idea – use 3 different types of salt to discover which of these produces the most desirable effects. We used good old table salt, sea salt, and Himalayan Pink salt.

So, you might be thinking- which salt produced the best effects? I guess you’ll have to tune in (video link below) to find out 🙂