As an exercise in perseverance (and joy) I will document my journey with water colours here in this gallery. Here goes week 1!
At this point, my habitual thought process goes something like this…
‘I think I’ll be really good at that, it looks easy…maybe I could become a famous water colour artist?…Oh bugger, this is much more difficult than it seems. I might actually have to spend some time learning and failing before I create anything nice…what if I put all that effort in and still don’t produce anything perfect? How humiliating!!…I don’t think I’ll bother…embroidery looks pretty easy though…‘
Let’s see if I can paint a new pattern into my mind…
Day 1
I don’t need to learn any techniques or buy special paper or paints…right?
Maybe I’ll try some mixed media…oh my, I look like a skeleton!
Pacha looks good though!
Day 1 Reflection: When it comes to water colours, quality materials and technical foundations help a lot.
Day 2
Ok, maybe I should watch a tutorial then…
I found a great one! Check out Paint Crush with Kristy Rice here.
She does ‘paint along’, which basically feels like Zumba for painting! You don’t have time to think, just go for it! I found it wonderful for practicing pushing through my inhibitions…just like Zumba 🙂
‘Paint along’ 1
‘Paint along’ 2
Playing with my newly learned techniques…
Day 2 Reflection: There is something called ‘water control’ and it’s extremely important!!
Day 3
More techniques from Kristy Rice, woo!
2nd attempt at me and Pacha on Bigbury Beach in Devon UK…
I really like my choice of surreal colours here. I do realise I have a long way to go in terms of technique. The sky lacks depth and there are funny lines where my water control wasn’t up to scratch. I like it with the sky cut off (below). I don’t know why I didn’t leave space for our reflections in the sand though. That’s one of the best bits of the photo! I would also like to capture my silly facial expression.
Week 1 Takeaways:
Pushing through discomfort is well…uncomfortable, but the prize is worth it. As I was painting along with Kristy Rice, I could feel my tension and doubts arising. Ignoring them and carrying on was empowering! I was also excited by the results. The reason I compare this to Zumba is that I found this same joy and freedom going to classes. Having trained as a dancer in a very toxic environment, it was so liberating to just mindlessly copy someone. When I improvise, this is much harder to find. My inhibitions and doubts have more space to manifest. I experienced the same thing while improvising with water colours…hesitation and fear rearing their ugly heads. So, finding that freedom in my own creative process needs to be a focus for me. But of course, without a solid grounding in technique, that freedom will be limited. I need to find the ‘sweet spot’ between the freedom and control.
flailing about 
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