I have a passive interest in being an artist. I love art–always have. I love going to art museums. I love observing art in nature. And I do want to “create” art but I have never been driven to pursue anything specific. Well, that has changed…or rather it is starting to change.
I signed up for a watercolor class. I love it. My instructor is very talented and patient. Our group meets in an old, one-roomed school-house which sits rather prettily in the middle of nowhere. So that in itself is totally vintage cool. I am
sloooowly
learning the ropes of watercolor technique. I say slowly because I feel like I am back in Kindergarten. Being in a school doesn’t help. But I really don’t mind because I was only in Kindergarten for 9 weeks before I was moved to first grade. And even though that may make me some kind of kid genius (not really), I have always felt like I really missed out on something BIG in childhood…I missed a first “rites of passage”. I have no memories of going to school and eating graham crackers and taking naps. I only have the full-throttled, grueling, FULL day school experience that we all endured for years. No getting my little Kmart Trax shoes wet first. Nope not for me. But through this watercolor class I am living my Kindergarten dream. How so?
So far I have painted a color wheel and experimented with pulling paints across the page. I have done one simplistic picture (two green mounds representing hills and a blue sky), dumped coarse sea salt on it to see how the salt would create a speckled appearance. That’s it. I was just getting on a roll when my instructor decided she needed a trip to Ireland…where, of course, she will paint fabulous landscapes, no doubt. She gave me “homework” to do…which I promptly lost…with the orders to not worry about creating any pictures yet.
Come on!
So as the two weeks of her absence came to close, this kindergartener became restless. I decided to pull out the paints and watercolor pencils the other day and just see what I could do. I found a leaf on a walk so I painted that first (remember, I am at Kindergarten level):
I wanted to try out my watercolor pencils next so I looked to my vinyl tablecloth for inspiration and painted this:
Now that was fun! I really like using the pencils. At this point in my painting career, I feel they give me more control than just slopping paint on a page. Which is why she had me start on a color wheel. Yes, I get it now.
I really like Kindergarten. I think I may take graham crackers and milk (spiked with espresso shots) to my next class.
Thank you for reading!
~~Heather~~
p.s. please see my about page for my commenting policy
>
