A beautiful day, some gardening, some errand-running, a new pair of earrings (thanks to ME!), a bit of painting, and twitchiness is gone. But now I am faced with the problem of gathering my courage as I promised earlier.
Today I have to show you what I have done with water colors. Knowing it wasn't going to be easy and having gone through a long period of adjusting to oils, I was prepared for this new venture to take a while. Make that two whiles. I started with fooling around with the brushes (sable is very different from bristle), the paper instead of canvas, and the method. Then I tried getting used to the paint and how it is used. Trust me, it will take as long as finding my style in oils did.
That being said, I decided last week to start trying to paint something rather than just make random marks on paper. Naturally I began with a subject I know well so I could eliminate some sources of anxiety. Here are paintings No.s 4 and 5 of the lake on a stormy day.
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| No. 4 on the left and No. 5 on the right |
They aren't horrid, but they aren't good either. Number 4 on the left isn't even finished. Number 5 - well, I lost my light spaces. Leaving unpainted paper to provide the white will take quite a bit of getting used to. And that's just a part of it.
D says he'd like to take parts of each painting and put them together to make one. He's right, but even then I don't think there would be enough to make one decent painting. He, like me, is curious to hear what Sharon has to say tomorrow: what is good and how to make it better next time. I think she'll be hard pressed to cut through the downright awful to the merely tolerable!
However, even though I know that the learning curve may be steep and that this may not turn out to be something I do well, I also know that this is just the beginning and that anything worth doing will take time and effort on my part.
Lots of effort!
I am amazed at how you worked your sky, particularly in No. 5. You left plenty of white to make the drama of the storm clouds evident. You seem to have three layers of clouds. It's the middle layer that leaves me somewhat confused as to your subject. I know the scene; so I know there are no high mountains beyond the gap. Having said that, there is much about the painting that I love. No. 5 seems more dramatic to me. After all your protestations that you can't do watercolors, you show great skill in your attempts. Good for you.
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