I mostly left watercolor to those who wanted to spend a lot of time mastering the brilliant white of the page like John Singer Sargent, or the seductive washes and blooms of Georgia O’Keefe, or the passionate landscapes of Emil Nolde. I used watercolors to stain papers for my collages, to add color here or there in a drawing. But I’ve always felt the medium to be unforgiving.
All those biases were blown out of the water last weekend when Marcie Jan Bronstein led a workshop here at 26 Split Rock Cove called Seriously Playful Watercolor! In the first morning we painted pages of techniques that broke down the mystery and allowed for both newbies, like me, and those who wanted to improve their practice. By Sunday we were playing our way through those O’Keefe blooms, glazes, channels, and some color theory.
I now have a plan! A new project (which I won’t discuss yet), that incorporates this newly gained set of skills with my previous collage work. I cannot wait to see what my fellow workshop mates produce!! I want to get together again to share our work.
