Warming Up

I've been too busy to paint since the end of July, but thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, I finally found some time this weekend. For a variety of reasons, I decided to try something in watercolors. I haven't used watercolors in over a decade--my first step was rummaging through my art supplies to see how many paint tubes were still good and whether or not I had the right type of brushes.

I used to paint primarily in watercolors, way back when. I switched to oil paints partly because someone suggested that my watercolor technique might translate very well in oils.

Oddly, when I sat down to paint yesterday, I couldn't remember how to paint in watercolors. I could remember doing paintings way back when, but I couldn't remember how. I checked a couple of resources and was reminded that it is good to start with a wash of color. With that starting point, I dived in. The resultant painting is not my best work, nor is it even close to being my best work. It's my warm-up piece. Throughout the course of creating the painting, I remembered so many things about how to use watercolors. It was, to use an old cliche, just like riding a bike.

I chose a tree-filled view of the Green and St. John's church, leaving out a lot of the details. I figured trees would be more forgiving of errors. Today I'm going to try a still life. I'm not too confident that it will go well, but at the very least I'm sure I'll learn from it.