Just add water...

Somewhere in the back of my mind I had been harboring the idea of

sketching again with watercolors.

Too many uncountable years ago, I attempted this painting technique in art college

 and quickly put the judgement on myself that I'd failed miserably

(why do we do that to ourselves?)

so when I learned that Jane Voorhees was coming to visit our island locale

and

was going to offer a workshop on small format watercolor painting,

I knew that's where I wanted to be...

All those technical terms I'd forgotten!

Washes, wet in wet, dry brush, lifting off, dropping in color...

back again like old friends.

Made this little sampler (above) for future reference, added some marks

and remembered what I so loved about this medium of painting...

transparency.

I mentioned to Jane that these days, while working mainly with stitching and beads, 

I'd taken to the layering of silks - sheer silk - to achieve a similar transparency with cloth.

It was a definite "ah hah" kind of moment.

Jane has a killer smile...

and a very patient teaching style.

It was challenging to work directly from photographs...

how do you make the paint express what you're trying to say?

You have all the tools:  a selection of brushes, an extensive color palette for mixing,

the texture of good paper...

and the single most important ingredient,

water...

which seems to have a mind of its own.

What didn't I do in school that I want to do now?

LET

IT

FLOW

Thank you, Jane, for the very inspiring day...come back soon!

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To learn more about Jane and see her paintings, click here