Playing with Watercolor

I signed up for a watercolor class in July, four Tuesday mornings, with several of the people I had gone to paint with in France two years in a row.  Our teacher (who came to France both times) wanted to get us used to splashing around, using lots of water.  What's called "wet on wet."  Take a sheet of  paper, tape it onto a board, then brush clean water over the whole thing.  Dipping a brush into paint, you then splash the paint onto the paper in random fashion and then as the paper dries, gradually work through the painting to produce whatever your imagination dictates.  An abstract flower.  A loose tree beside a pond.  Whatever you want.

Our first Tuesday, we were shown flower photos to give us a variety of petal, leaf, and stem structures.  After putting down my initial colors in higgledy-piggledy fashion, I tried using negative painting to come up with some tulips.  Negative painting as opposed to positive painting is when you work with the negative space around your subject rather than working on the subject itself. (By working on the subject's background, you end up defining the subject.)  Not long into the painting, I decided to turn it into one of a peony instead.

We were also advised to drop in bright colors to start with.  Then, once those dried, to not go back and brighten them up even more because we could lose the initial luminosity but, instead, to use a greyish color in the negative space. Thus making the subject stand out.

Our first Tuesday, we worked with those flower photos   Our second, sliced watermelons with lemons.  Fresh flowers in vases our third.  And cupcakes our fourth.  I produced several casual, playful paintings each session, several that I didn't keep but at least one each session that I did.

Using the flower photos as inspiration  ...

Thinking I might turn the painting into one of tulips ...

... but then switching to a single peony

Watermelons and lemons ...

Preparing the three main colors I wanted to use

After just a little more definition, liking its looseness, I decided to leave the rest alone

Cut flowers in a vase ...

Part way along

A day lily (of sorts)

Cupcakes ...

We not only got to paint them, we got to eat them

This was the plate in front of me from which I picked only one, then left off the orange decorations ..

..to keep it simple

Doing a Lot of Nothing Much

I've been doing a lot of nothing much lately.  (Don't get me wrong:  nothing much can be wonderful.  And it can also be called Reducing the Toxic Load.) For one thing, it's been too hot to do anything much.

Even if it weren't too hot, I don't go out much.  I'm no good at shopping.  I don't feel I need anything.  And then I don't much like looking for a place to park, going off in the hot sun to put money in the ticket machine, then going back to put the ticket on the dashboard.  I did manage to find some pretty earrings for a family member who recently had her ears pierced. Afterwards, I considered getting an ice cream cone across the street, but I didn't even do that.  I just went back to the car and drove home where I can look out the window at the sunlight filtering through the white pines. Or think about a recent painting I did in a watercolor class.  Or read my current book.

Sometimes when it's especially hot, I'll get in my car, turn on the A/C, and drive around.  But to get out of here, I have to choose.  Do I go the front way with all its traffic and trucks that will be shooting off onto the interstate? Or do I go the back way, a pretty dirt road where I can then go to a little farm stand and get homemade cookies, veggies, frozen meat?  (I often choose the latter.)

As I emailed a friend recently, I think we should all be required to spend at least a day in the country now and again.  It helps balance, cleanse, and enable one to get back to basics.  But choose a back road to get there.  No heavy traffic!