Thursday, October 27, 2011

Something New - watercolor


Sometimes you need a change of scenery.  You need time away from "the usual" in order to refresh and reset. That's what vacations are all about right?


Sometimes I get so bogged down with deadlines that my usual art loses its joy. When everything I'm making seems to be class samples and things that other people want I feel that wonderful creative edge slipping away.

Time for something new - at least new to me. I'm taking a watercolor class through our town. Low key, I already have the materials. I admire the other artists here who do such interesting things with the medium and I've wanted to try it out for a while.
learning about washes
I'm pretty confident when it comes to playing around with new techniques. But sometimes I need the extra push of a class to force me to take the time to sit down and give it a try.

Learning how to paint a tree
My dad is a watercolor artist - so it's both fun and a little scary to pick up the medium he's so accomplished with. My long term goals don't involve becoming an accomplished watercolor artist, I still am in love with textiles and can't see that changing any time soon. But this is refreshing.

Trunk - by Lyric Kinard
I firmly believe we should all try something new once in a while. Play. Put unexpected things together. Let them foment and mash and mix up together and see what new thing emerges from that growing artists' brain of yours.

What things do you do when you are in the slump?
What kind of things are a refresher for your artists' soul?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Your watercolor looks great, the tree trunks are very well represented, very life like but has character of their own.
I wanted to be able to answer your questions, but having started my art journey merely a month ago and having only a few charcoal portraits to show, I really couldn't come up with an answer. I haven't gotten to that stage yet.

Anonymous said...

I knit or play with my photographs on the computer. Last spring I took a color theory class at the community college which allowed me to look at art in a whole new way. I was also required to work in acrylics, which I had never done.

HollyM said...

I love the tree trunk! I work primarily in textiles too. It's fun for me to pack up my bag and go outside somewhere to do watercolor sketches. I used to sell my work and it got to be work so I switched back to textiles. Now I do sketches just for fun.