Watercolor; it’s ALL about the water!

In this workshop, we will focus on how it’s the water that makes our watercolor paintings HAPPEN—successfully…or (sometimes) not!

When you think about it, the paint that we use is somewhat compliant…we squeeze it out, and it will just stay right there. It’s the water (with the at times help of gravity) that makes it move, it’s the water that helps us to make clean, clear, consistent washes, graded or solid washes without streaks. It’s the water that forms the bead that we move along to get those washes. It’s the water that makes our values light, medium and dark. AND, very importantly, it’s the water IN the brush that allows us to paint wet into wet without getting blossoms. It’s the water that allows us to soften edges. It’s the regulation of water in the brush that lets us make those beautiful dry-brush marks where we need them. It’s the water that allows us to charge color into color. In all of these examples, the water plays a crucial part in making them work the way that we expect (hope) that they will…

We will concentrate on all of these aspects of how the water is what makes our paintings. On day one, we’ll do some exercises on how to get our washes clean and pristine, and then we’ll work through (paint-along style) a painting or two that will give us the opportunity to discuss, think about and then use the water in just the right way in each aspect of the paintings.

Another thing that water allows us to do is to create atmospheric paintings using the glazing technique of applying one wash over another (drying between each) to create the atmospheric conditions that we experience and see in nature. On day two we’ll work through, again paint-along style, a painting or two that uses the glazing technique to create atmosphere.

We’ll have a half hour for lunch, so it would be great to bring it with you. At lunch we can all chat and discuss any and all questions you may have about watercolor…