Frustration to Ribbon

I'm excited to say the "Sunlite" won a Blue Ribbon, my 1st, at the Folly Beach Fine Art Show!!! This is encouraging.

Watercolor, you see is a medium I have struggled with for many years. I have always enjoyed watercolor painting, from the lite and translucent to the glazed and detailed. I would look a paintings in books and magazines and wish I could paint like that. Pick up my inexpencive little pad and give it a go.

To say the least it looked like mud. Taking classes at this time in my life was a little out of reach, and following the instructions in the How to books didn't quite work out, leaving me frustrated to say the least. Back in the closet they went till the next time.

I eventually invested in a small watercolor set of better quality I found on sale. There was some improvement, giving credit to the paint, but nothing I would show to any one. But still enough to start using watercolor as a background wash for some of my color pencil paintings. Then back in the closet they went.

Finally this year, I met a new friend on Facebook and when she offered video classes on line, I took them. The first painting was better then I had done in the past, but still nothing to brag about. The second painting was a beautiful Bird of Paridise flower, at least the photograph and the instuctor Julie's painting were, mine looked like washed out mud. We conversed, a few critiques and a helpful suggestions later I repainted the lesson and I haven't stopped painting since.