For years, I was afraid to paint with watercolors!
I’d heard they were unforgiving, that you can’t make mistakes,
and that you have to know what you want to achieve before you begin.
I don’t operate that way, I’m more of a “go with the flow” kind of person.
I learn by doing, too eager to paint to take time to plan.
Which, if you know my origin story, isn’t a surprise.
I moved to Hawaii on June 2, 2000, to begin life as an artist. I’d housesit for a friend for five months and figure everything else out
when I arrived. I sold my house, put everything in storage awaiting my return, and bought a one-way ticket to Honolulu.
Once inside the tiny garage apartment I cared for, I realized its size necessitated my ditching
my beloved oil paints and learning to paint with watercolor.
It was either that or risk death by fumes.
Fortunately, I met a wonderful teacher who didn’t mind that my paintings didn’t look like anyone else’s.
One night, I laid eight of my paintings on the floor of that tiny apartment and gazed down at them from the bed.
“Well,” I thought, “at least they all look like mine.”
I had no idea the importance of having a signature style, nor did I know how much mine would continue to evolve.
I wasn’t interested in the things we painted during class, but I soaked up the technical information like a sponge.
After class, I painted the flora in the yard I tended in return for my temporary home.
From the start, the colors in Hawaii called to me.
Originally from Wisconsin, I was used to neutral, earth tones.
Hawaii is a land of beautiful, outrageously bright color in the sky, the sea, and across the land.
The feeling of those colors is what I emulate with my paintings.
Traditional watercolors use the softest of voices, beautifully.
That doesn’t mean you have to paint that way if you prefer to speak/paint with brighter colors.
Yes, I can save the white of my paper if I have to, and I can paint soft, sweet, lullaby pastel colors when they’re needed.
Maybe I simply have a louder painting voice than most.
The key, no matter what tone of voice you use when you paint,
is to know how to use your colors to achieve the results you want.
I studied color theory for two semesters at the University of WI, Madison in the late 1970s.
I waited to take these classes until after graduation because the instructor was intense, and I needed time to focus.
I am enthralled with the ways color works.
There’s a big difference between reading about the ways colors work and interact with one another, and experiencing it.
While some people might learn by reading, I learn best by doing — pictures help too.
Remember what I said at the beginning, about watercolor being unforgiving?
That is so NOT TRUE!
I smile as I tell students that those misconceptions are lies started by nefarious watercolor artists who want to keep watercolors all to themselves!