FIve Mintues

That’s all the time I had this morning.

The rest of this week will be one for working fast. I think I’ll try to use less water the next time.

Backgrounds

While there's nothing exciting with these backgrounds, I did one where I started with the background.

I did one where I ended with the background. I like the brighter, clearer colors of this one. Plus, the reds are sharper both on purpose and from working with another color. You can get nice reds by mixing Pyrrole Orange and Quinacridone Magenta.

A Pair of Red Pears

It’s still watercolor pears and will be through the upcoming holiday.

They look so different from the time they are mostly dry to really dry. I keep getting surprised by that and, frequently, add more paint. Sometimes I like it better afterwards.  Sometimes, I don’t. It’s a different situation than the one in my last post.

Since I’ve been doing so many pears, I haven’t been posting all of them, but I’m also trying not to cherry pick (or pear pick) the best ones. I want to show the good, the bad, and the so-so on this blog.

Stop, Stop, Stop, Just Stop!

Sometimes, or a lot of the time, I need someone to say "stop, stop, stop, just stop".

This morning I worked on both a quick painting and a household task. In alternating between the two, I was able to let the painting partly dry, so I wasn't working in too wet of an environment. I worked quick, sweet, and simple with a background where I removed paint and added back layers, so I had 3 distinct values. 

All was well, until................I decided that I needed to make one change. This caused something I didn't like, which led to another change, and another, and another. It end up okay, but I think it was better before I fell down this rabbit hole.

Take Away, Put Back

I did a background, mostly let it dry, took away a vague pear shape, and rewetted the background (to try to fix something). Since everything was still wet at this point, I added color to the pear to see what would happen.

Playing around with watercolor this way makes me feel a little like a kid playing with fingerprints.  Although, I would also say that working with watercolor is an experiential reminder that we have less control than we think we do in watercolor, in life, in everything.

Emerging From The Shadows

I think I've tapped into something with these backgrounds and mostly removing, rather than adding. It's like something previously hidden is stepping out into the light.

Gentle, Gentle

I am not known for being gentle, gentle. This phrase comes from an annual occurrence at Christmas time. No matter how carefully the lights for the tree are packed up in the prior year, they are always a tangled mess when it’s time to put them on this year’s tree. Inevitably when I am trying to untangle them, my spouse will give me that kind, but cautionary, look and say “gentle, gentle”. It makes me smile at the time and throughout the year when it pops into my thoughts when I realize that a situation needs a little gentle, gentle. By the way, he usually gets to be the one to finish untangling the lights.

I am continuing the new watercolor background experiments. I played with a second sheet that I set up like the first one, but the background color was harsh. It got in my way and I don’t like what I did with it or how it turned out.

This one was done in the hand bound book I made from Roz’s online class. I stared with a light outline of a pear in pencil. It’s not a watercolor paper, so I couldn’t lift any color in the dried background. While the color changed in the area where I rewetted, none of the color came up. For a change, I stayed gentle, gentle with adding color, didn’t overwork, and let the water do its thing. I liked the finished product in person much better than the picture.  I like the outline. It’s a combo of the pencil lines and how the watercolor settled. The fact the pear is floating is making me a little crazy, but I think it’s better to leave it, as is.

A Grand Experiment

There's a saying that goes something like "if you always do what you've always done, then you'll always get what you've always got". While I've been working on watercolor pears everyday, I've been in a rut and needed a different direction to explore.

When I went to Monica's class, she had one example that was more an impression of a pear, rather than a pear. If you looked at the painting, it's like the pear emerged from a fog or something while you were looking at it. I wish I would have slowed down, looked at it more carefully and either tried to figure out what she did or just asked her. In any event, thinking about that pear inspired me to try something new.

What I did was paint some backgrounds of different colors. On some of them, I took away color in the vague form of a pear shape before the background was fully dry. On some of them, I let them fully dry.

For today's completed experiment, I look one background where I removed paint in two places and played further. On the left side, my intention was to just leave it, except for adding a shadow and a stem. I couldn't help myself and I did some light washes of color. On the other side, I played with adding more background.

I'm saving the other backgrounds for the next several days.

With this first experiment, I ended up with a darker edge of color. While I like the effect and  how it outlines the pear without being obnoxious about it, it makes me very curious about what Monica did with her painting.

Fussy Versus Simple

Today, I started a pear painting in the morning by putting down a layer. Much later in the afternoon, I went down and finished it. This is the fussy pear.

While I was working on it this afternoon, I played around on a bigger piece of paper doing just the outline or a simple version. Here’s a partial view. The shape of the one in the upper left-hand corner worked, so it got a simple stem and shadow.

However, I like the following one the best. It was done on the same piece of paper, which is why there’s a stroke from a different, abandon pear going through the stem. It was quick and easy with 3 values and I think it reads as well as the ones I work on for a long time. There’s a place for both kinds and I am having fun exploring!

Overworked

Frequently, I dismiss something I’m not pleased with as overworked. It’s been a blanket term as in “oh, that’s overworked”. I haven’t thought about the distinct problems inherent in overworking. Things like losing freshness and/or edges and ending up with muddy colors. So instead of the general dismissal, It would be better to accept the invitation to go deeper and do a little evaluation.

So after this preamble, you might think my next piece was a disaster, but it wasn’t. I am happy with the end result, as well as what I learned while painting it. However, it got me thinking about overworking, because I came close to that tipping point, but didn’t fall off the cliff.

I easily could have stopped working on it sooner and probably should have, but I don’t think it’s overworked because of there are edges. Also, the background was done with a light hand versus really, really, really working on, layering in, and taking out color in the pear, so there’s some variety. Lastly, the colors didn’t end up all muddy. This is thanks to my friend who was over yesterday afternoon painting with me and to my hubby who was cleaning the gutters out. I took frequent painting breaks to visit, make tea, or help the hubby move the ladder, so I let things dry.

I Was Patient, But I Got Tired Of Waiting

One of my favorite quotes from Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, comes from the character of Anya. It goes along the lines of title of this blog post. This quote sums up my relationship to watercolor and to many, many other aspects of how I approach life.

I have been starting each day with a watercolor pear. It's been a blast, but I think I use too much water. After that, there's the problem of patience. There's a point where it's best to let things dry. I try to wait, but I get inpatient. I'm not showing the "best" examples of too much water + not enough patience.

Instead, here is one is on meh paper. In the paper hierarchy, there's crappy paper, meh paper, and good paper. Meh paper is better than crappy paper, but is not as good as good paper. It's amusing to me how much I enjoy using less than ideal watercolor paper to try and learn watercolor.

I'm using using my hand-bound book, which has good paper. Here's one from that. 

The best part is that it feels great to be back to making art on a daily basis. 

Day 2 Disaster!

This is not the internal critic speaking. This is a curious soul who is wondering why initial progress in learning is so frequently followed by disaster. In a recent post, I mentioned that after a successful run of a new or difficult juggling pattern, the next several runs are fall apart immediately. I've noticed the same thing with art. From Saturday's class and the start of "a pear a day", I could see something that I wanted to explore or build upon. When I went to paint a pear yesterday morning, let's just say that it did not go well.

11/04/19 - Pear

I think this shows that I had left the place of the beginners mind, where you can stay open and curious, to letting the everyday mind (or at least my everyday mind) start down the path "aha, I think I can do this" or focusing on the result or something like that. I can feel it better than I can explain it, but it's way more autopilot versus being fully present and curious. Of course, disaster ensues. The mind is such a tricky thing. I didn't start out intentional or deliberate. The next time, I am going to try, try, try to set the intention before I begin that I am exploring a process and new medium.

In the meantime since I was working from home, I took a break mid-morning and played on crappy paper with more openness and curiosity.

A Pear A Day For Most Of November

One and a half years ago, I took Roz's bookmaking class for simple round spine books. So far, I have made one and only one book, despite intentions to the contrary. Worse yet, I've used about 5 pages in that book.

After Saturday's class, I've decided to do 20-30 days of pears in watercolor in this book. Pears come in such lovely colors and they have appealing shapes.

I want to start more of my days with art-making. I want to play with watercolor. I want to be exploratory not exact. I want to paint pears. I want to use my book. I want to see what happens.

11/03/19 - pear

For now, I'm probably using too much water and not letting things dry. My guess is that people with more experience with this medium would be horrified. I don't care. I think the blotches are kind of pretty and I'm having creating and exploring with them.

Beginners Mind

Yesterday, I spent the day in class at Wet Paint. The class was Gestural Watercolor with Monica Fogg. She was an affirming, generous instructor and has a background in teaching art. It was a lovely day.

I lucked out getting into the class. It had filled and I was put on the wait list. On Thursday, I found out I was in. That may have contributed to how I approached class. There wasn’t time to overthink things. So on Saturday morning, I decided to leave the internal critic at home, along with any anxiety or insecurities. This has been a year with a lot of change and growth and I decided this class was a gift for myself and I was going to have fun, learn what I could, and embrace whatever happened. All of this led to the perfect combination of approaching this class with beginners mind.

While there weren’t any extreme cases in the other participants, it made me a little sad to hear other people’s comments which made it clear that their internal critic, anxieties, or insecurities had accompanied them to class. Been there. Done that. Know what this can look like and sound like. I wish I could push flip a switch for myself and for other people just make this go away forever.What a gift that would be to myself and to others.

Anyway..........I had a lovely day. We did some different exercises, which included mixing up colors  you might find in a green pear or a red pear. I went a little crazy and filled about 1/3 of the sheet initially. At lunch, I filled the rest of the page. My color mixing was intuitive. When I had a splash of color, I’d mix some other color into it, just to see what would happen.

We did some other exercises and, after that, it was time to spend some quality time with pears. One great thing I learned is that you can play around with watercolor on less than great paper. My 3 stroke pears and the ones below were done on a crappy 85 gsm paper, which I have, but don't enjoy drawing on. I’m thrilled that I can use it up as warm up paper for playing with watercolor. For the 3 stroke pears, I was being very literal. Monica noticed that when she was checking in on participants and suggested using a brush with water to move the paint around. That didn't count as an additional stroke. In the 3 stroke pears, no one thought about or represented the negative space. When we were given up to 10 stroke pears, Monica mentioned negative space and people started to consider it.

At first, I was unhappy when the end of the stem bloomed into the top of the pear, when I let two wet parts touch. Later, I decided I liked it. Overall, this class and approach is a fun way to explore watercolor. Since you are more exploring the idea of something rather than a true representation, it's easier to let go and let the medium do a little (or a lot) of what it wants.

For one assignment, we practiced some simple thumbnails. If you were happy with one of the scenes you set up, the next assignment was to paint it or you could set up something different. There were apples, squash, gourds, or pears to choose from. For my thumbnails, I had a larger scene, but when I went to paint I focused on two pears which seemed to have a lovely relationship. They weren’t holding each other up, but they seemed to be there for each other.

I lost any gestural aspect and overworked it, which also meant that there’s not much value range. This may sound like the internal critic speaking, but it’s not. When I was working on this, I was in the moment, in the zone, and in a place of enjoyment and learning.

I tried a second set up, but didn’t get very far with it. The group was circling up for another round of comments and feedback. For the last assignment, we could do whatever we wanted to. I decided to try and be more gestural with a pear and to be clearer about light, medium, and dark values.

It was a really, really great day and I think this class got me out of my art-making-avoidance funk. Slowly, it’s been lifting, but as of yesterday it’s dissipated and is gone. Hurrah!