Watercolor

No, I haven't been to Italy lately. I finished this painting today but it was started in a workshop last month that I took from the Australian painter John Lovett . I don't call myself a watercolor painter, not having put in nearly enough time and effort to control what I'm doing. I usually beat the paper into submission, scrubbing layer after layer of paint onto the surface until I have a muddy mess. My hand is too heavy for this lovely medium even though I have fun doing it. This painting is like most of the rest that I'm not showing you but I rather like it. It's half-sheet size: 11" x 15".

John's a good teacher and I took his workshop for the purpose of improving my style of drawing and painting in my sketchbooks. I've always taken lots of photos, many with the idea that they'll imform my artwork but I stumbled when I tried to paint from them, lapsing into copying the photo rather than using it in a thoughtful way. Something happened to my thinking during this class, something I can't explain at all, but I think I get it... I finally get how to pick element from a scene and making a painting about them rather than trying to put everything in the scene into the painting. I'll have to work at it for awhile but I can already feel my thinking shift.