Going With the Flow

Ten or twelve years ago, I attended a silent auction fund-raiser. There were lots of interesting items, but the one that I bid on and won was four watercolor painting lessons. I met with the instructor at a building with a wide porch surrounded by trees. The setting was lovely and the lessons were wonderful. Some time later, our town recreation department offered lessons, and I signed up. I painted some, and then this and that intervened and the palette was put away. But last week, I dug out the paints and paper and tried again. There is technique to master, I have a lot to learn and re-learn, but I am finding lots of on-line tutorials. It is fun and absorbing and challenging. 

When you put the water and the paint – or the paint and the water – on the paper, it seems to have a mind of its own. It runs and blooms and fills. Sometimes the color is pale, sometimes dark. Water on almost dry paint changes the tint and texture. The paint, not the painter, is in control! And the best results are suggestions not reproductions. 

What I "see" in my imagination is not exactly what happens on the paper, but, even so, I painted some flowers the other day. Some of them went on to the paper as colored dots, but they “read” as flowers. I am learning to loosen up, to let go, to see what happens. I am learning that an abstract stroke can become a blossom. I am one who usually likes to have things in order, to know what is going to happen, to be prepared. But somehow the lack of precision with watercolor appeals to me. I am learning to go with the flow, literally – good lesson in art and in life!