I love to paint. I started with acrylics, back in the day for an art class in high school. Watercolor didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time. I gave it a try later mostly because we had this awesome art store in town (Eastmans) and I'd go in there and wander the aisles, wondering if the other people wandering the aisles were REAL artists unlike me who was just a wannabe.
I remember I bought this little box of cheapo watercolor paints, the kinds in the tubes, yeah baby; they were cheap, but they were the real deal. I think I used them pretty much like I would have used acrylics. I had fun with them though.
Fast forward eons and I took a watercolor class. Whoa was that an eye-opener. I learned wet-on-wet and away I went! The painting at left is a successful example of my experimentation with wet-on-wet. It's a painting of one of my student's cats. Right now it's for sale in my shop on Etsy.
Looking at it and thinking about it and smelling spring in the air I'm starting to hanker for my paints. I recently picked up Antwerp Blue because I read that Beatrix Potter used it with Burnt Sienna to make one of her colors. Am anxious to try that. In fact, I'm anxious to get back to the sketches I did of some of her famous watercolor pictures. I sketched a bunch and then never got around to painting them. When I started painting I found that I would much rather copy someone else's work that I admired than to paint anything original (that cat being one of the few exceptions.) The benefit being that I have some "original" Beatrix Potter paintings in my studio and some "original" Tasha Tudor paintings which I couldn't afford to buy in a million years and I didn't pay a cent for them. LOL!! One of my all-time favorites I gave to my daughter. It's a lesser known painting of Beatrix's of guinea pigs gardening. Too cute.
What spring crafts/compulsions/hobbies are calling to you?
I've been trying to socialize Fergal so he will be relaxed when I bring him to demonstrations, etc. So, he's been to pet therapy at the nursing home, knitting night at Six Loose Ladies, and this week he volunteered to be a display at Rachel's Science Fair (her project had to do with dyeing fiber.) Then last night I brought him to SLL and his Uncle Lucas sheared him.
