Joan Armatrading

I have taken the day off work today, so I can pick my son up from school, and I am spending some more time on my watercolour projects, listening to Joan Armatrading in the background. It is perfect music for painting watercolour. I'm taking time out to write this while my work is drying, and because - despite my cold - the music and the painting are putting me in a great mood.

I am really loving painting with watercolour. I'm not quite sure why. A part of it to be sure is the book I am working from. The projects give a feeling of accomplishing something while forcing me to practise the techniques of watercolour. I think another part of my enjoyment comes from the immediacy of watercolour. I paint a section, and stop. I cannot rework anything, that will destroy it. This is quite unlike any other media I have tried. Pastel, oil, acrylic, all allow me to rework and rework and it seems that I rarely finish anything. Watercolour is teaching me some important painting disciplines - planning, patience, colour accuracy, drawing accuracy.

I think that long term watercolour will not take me where I want to go. I suspect oil or acrylic has more room for experimentation, and I will want to try that. For the moment, I am very happy painting with watercolor.

(Later in the day) Well, I've finished this, my third watercolor. For all of the many, many errors in this painting, I'm very happy with this work. I have learned so many lessons over the last few days painting. The biggest problem I had with this painting was the background. I could not control the ballooning of the water into the blue paint no matter what I did, and then when I tried to repair it, I made things worse. The paint was Cobalt Blue - does it have any characteristics which make it especially hard to work with? How do I overcome this?

(230 x 305, Fabriano Acquarello 300 gsm hot pressed watercolour paper, Winsor Newton Artist's Watercolour, 16.10.07)