And they're off!

Home Game:
- Just the beginning of a new black/white acrylic this week on a 18x24" black canvas of moonlight on Stoyoma Mountain east of Merritt.  Foreground of lake and trees happening next ...



Away Game:
Great start to the watercolour workshop yesterday morning with a quick 'head start' session. Thank you all for jumping in with such short notice. I hope it helped you feel more comfortable with starting on your own - get that paint wet :)

References for further study, if you are interested:

• Colour; Travels Through the Paintbox by Victoria Finlay - a book on the history of each colour, which involves pirates, beetle juice, poisons, espionage, and other surprises. 
  
• - My go-to website for checking info on any watercolour topic.  http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html The artist, Bruce MacEvoy, also seems to be a chemist and researcher - he actually tests paints and gives practical information on a range of watercolour topics. 
  

Some tips  (sent by email to the workshop participants):
- The textbook, Watercolour in 10 Steps by Patricia Seligman, is just for learning basic painting skills, not creating  beautiful little artworks, so don't try for excellence, just improvement. 
- Use real fruit whenever possible, rather than painting from the book's photos and sketches - recognizing the actual shapes and colours makes for better future paintings. 
- Give an exercise a try or two, and think whether you see what Patricia was trying to teach you. Then move on to the next exercise. After the third one, go back and try the earlier ones again and see if your skills are improving. Repeat :)
- There is no magic, it's just practice. No 'practice makes perfect' either - 'perfect' is not part of learning to paint. 
- Relax - if the painting does not work out, it's just a piece of paper.