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!
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