| Author |
Message |
 
Sid
| | Posted on Monday, March 6, 2006 - 11:45 pm: |  |
George: No, no twin. Maybe we are just "soul mates"?
Kristen's comment re. oils, reminded me of another
problem I have with acrylics--I keep putzing with them for
ever, probably, just because with acrylics you can keep
changing this, adding that, on and on. Somehow, with
watercolor I seem to "get in, get out, and get over
with it!" |
tachee
| | Posted on Monday, March 6, 2006 - 2:21 pm: | |
i really have enjoyed reading this. am amazed at how many of you had art in school. if i had known art was offered, i might have went! [i hit the highway early.] i remember as a young mother, exposing the kids [and myself] to an art museum and being blown away. watercolors the most. i remember two thoughts: how did they do this and how am i going to get to it. |
Eric
| | Posted on Monday, March 6, 2006 - 2:18 pm: | |
As a child, I was the kid in class that could draw cartoons really well. My classmates were always bugging me to "draw Bugs Bunny, or draw Fred Flintstone". In high school and college I kind of lost interest in art, focusing more on a "practical" career like business and I was also very busy playing sports.
After getting established in the business world and getting married, I still had that gnawing feeling that I needed to develop my natural
talent. Plus, I wasn't getting any younger.
Whenever I saw a painter on PBS on one of those "how-to" shows, I thought, "I can do that". So I simply reached a point where instead of saying I can do it, I decided to pick up a brush and give it a try.
Watercolor was the obvious choice because it was fast. Being a cartoonist, I like to sketch quickly. I detest portraits or anything involving tedious detail. Plus, I loved the intermingling of colors and the sparkle from the white of the paper, and the soft diffusions and all that magical watercolor stuff.
I studied every book I could get my hands on and learned so much from the all-time greats. I've really enjoyed the journey.
Seeing the improvement incrementally has kept me going the past ten years and I can't see ever giving this hobby up. |
Kristen
| | Posted on Monday, March 6, 2006 - 1:06 pm: | |
I did my first watercolor in high school art class, a stack of cardboard boxes, painted monotone. I had tried one oil painting, hated how it never seemed to end, the paint never dried, it was like painting with muck...and I never gave oils a second glance. With watercolor, I enjoyed how the medium countered my desire to be in control, and since those boxes, I've been hooked. I've painted watercolors on and off for the last fifteen years, and for the last eight months I've arranged my work schedule to allow me to paint each day. |
marie
| | Posted on Monday, March 6, 2006 - 12:52 pm: | |
I dabbled with watercolor as a child. My love affair with it started about 5 or 6 years ago. I started doing a lot of drawing, especially figure drawing, in January 2000. About the same time, I ran across a book of Sargent watercolors and was completely captivated. I started tinkering with watercolors on the side. My figure drawing teacher (-- a very wonderful teacher) tended to frown on students who concentrated color and painting without adequate drawing skills. For a couple of years I followed all the rules and demonstrated that I could do pretty decent academic drawing. Eventually, I began to sneak a tiny watercolor travel kit into class, and I started using washes to handle the tonality on my drawings. My teacher realized that I was happier with a brush in my hand and encouraged me to do more watercolor, lots more watercolor. About a year later, he arranged for me to get gallery representation, and he remains my biggest supporter, even though he doesn't do watercolor in a traditional sense. |
George
| | Posted on Monday, March 6, 2006 - 12:39 pm: | |
My story is exactly the same as Sids. Do you have a lost twin sid? |
greg
| | Posted on Monday, March 6, 2006 - 10:50 am: | |
I started painting at the age of 12. My grandmother sent me to private lessons in the summer. oil only.
It has been that way for the last 25 plus years through High School and college. I started WC only
6-8 months ago, or close to that......I am not sure why...I think it was color. I love color. And WC
is beautiful rich color, it glows, oil never really glows. You just can't ever achieve that look. I also like the idea of leaving the white, instead of adding it on at the end, opaquely. Plus, my studio is not full of smelly paint rags. |
Sid
| | Posted on Sunday, March 5, 2006 - 11:51 am: | |
I started out some 25 years ago, painting with acrylics,
generally fairly opaque, on masonite. Then, about 12
years ago, and for what reason I don't remember, I
switched to watercolor--took a couple of workshops--
and was hooked. Now I can't go back. Every once in a
while I think, maybe I could do this painting better (easier)
with acrylics. So I dig them out and start a new painting.
In about 10 minutes I am fed up. I don't like the "feel" of
acrylics and I am always laying the brush down, forgetting
it, and turning it to stone!! I have done some "watercolor"
style paintings with acrylic, but it's not the same. I am
hopelessly hooked on watercolor! Water color is magic. |
Dan
| | Posted on Saturday, March 4, 2006 - 9:53 pm: | |
I've been enjoying this "medium" off and on for a good while now. I've never had much "formal" training other than a few initial courses long ago...and I guess that isn't even an issue anymore. What first attracted me then and always... was simply the way the colors seemingly melted into the paper leaving their stains behind. It fascinates me and I don't know why. Perhaps it's some inherent "water thing" that I'm missing...or not quite grasping in this life. Who knows...who cares? All I know is it makes me happy when I'm painting. I'm not a novice...but I'll also never be it's master.
Rather...I'll try to be a friend to this "wild,untamed will o the wisp" and let it go where it may. |
Eugene
| | Posted on Saturday, March 4, 2006 - 4:03 pm: | |
I dabbled in watercolor in high school in 1942, but had no idea
of what I was doing. Student paper and Prang pan
watercolors..A that time I had never seen a good w/c.
But after my time in WW2, I enrolled in the Philadelphia Museum
School of Industrial Art, studying Illustration under W. E.
Heitland, AWS and NA. He was a retired magazine illustrator
who worked in transparent watercolor. He inspired many
budding artists. Some bloomed and became well known.
Others, wilted and died.
After 4 years of art school, I work at many jobs in commercial
art, finally as corporate art director for a major national
company. I needed to make a living and raise a family so I really
didn’t pursue the fine arts until after my retirement, about 20
years ago. Then I began painting for fun. I have had fun and
modest success in shows.
But it all began with a good, caring teacher. And watercolor
illustrators of that era, especially John Pike, who was turning out
one a week for the fiction magazines. |
sarita
| | Posted on Saturday, March 4, 2006 - 2:51 pm: | |
Robert,
after 22 years of painting, you are no where near a beginner. You are so modest and humble... However, I can appreciate the trepidation that watercolor inheritantly brings forth in an artist. I finally did a plein air painting this weekend. I'm looking forward to sharing it with every one on this board ( as soon as I figure out how to post it.) Greg, you have seem to have this posting thing down. Can you give me a hand. Anyway, there is something to this plein air painting. I really had fun the last two weekends, I can't wait to share my attempt with all of you. |
Robert
| | Posted on Saturday, March 4, 2006 - 2:05 pm: | |
Since 1964 (Junior high school--watercoolor since 1984). I don't own a digital camera. I don't think i could negotiate the archane secret knowledge it takes to post here anyway--seems very complex to me.
My paintings aren't glorious at all. I still feel like a beginner. |
sarita
| | Posted on Saturday, March 4, 2006 - 1:34 pm: | |
Robert,
Just out of curiousity, how long have you been painting? When my dear fellow, are your going to post some of your glorious paintings. I'm sure we will all benefit... |
Robert
| | Posted on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 8:31 pm: | |
I was in junior high school, about 1964, wandering through the empty classroom studios in the basement of an art musuem and saw a guy with a pointed sable brush sitting a chairpainting from a photo a watercolor of a sailboat. He was using a small w/c block--no bigger than 9 X 12--on his lap. I was fascinated by his meticulous attention and I don't think that fascination ever left me though I didn't take up watercolor per se for another 20 years. |
sarita
| | Posted on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 6:14 pm: | |
I was cleaning out my closet last weekend and I found numerous artistic things I had done when I was waaaay younger. Charcoal drawings, pen & ink, ink etchings and some pastels. Yes, my closet was over flowing!!! I remember how I hated dealing with color while I was in jr. college. It never suited me. I prefered to worked in the gray scale of charcoal, or the stark black and white of pen & ink.
Then I experienced mud... pottery. I loved the earthy smell of the clay, the physical effort it took to throw on the wheel (manual) with a 350 pound fly wheel. Finally, I thought this was my artistic outlet. WRONG. I had to deal with glazes, which meant COLOR. God, was I never to find my medium...
Then a wonderful event happened. My daughter and I went to a local art festival. Really, all I was interested in was the pottery. Well something said about those who wait. Instead, the first booth I happened upon was WATERCOLOR...
Geez.., I was enthralled, in awe, the glorious colors. Where the hell have I been. It spoke to me, unlike any other medium out there.
When my daughter and I came back home, she did the most amazing thing. She brought out a Christmas gift, cheezy paper, and a five & dime
watercolor set. Well, let me tell you I was in heaven. The second the brush hit those colors and I watched them blend and intermingle on the paper. THE LOVE AFFAIR, came on big time.
That was about 2 years ago, I have never looked back. Okay, the hardest medium to control (never master) had found me. Well I can only hope that this is the artistic outlet I need.
Color and water, my two favorite things in the world. Well, lets hope this love affair last as long as my marriage - going on 27 years.
Good Lord, if I painted for 27 years.. damn I think I might get the hang of it.
Anyway, when did your Love Affair start with watercolors? |
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