Revisiting

The old adage that you have only one shot to get a watercolor painting right is correct. Transparent color over transparent color usually makes mud.  But if we admit our failure, and dismiss the need to be a purist, then there are indeed many avenues open to “correcting” the painting. 

This painting was first made thirty years ago and sat in my drawer being neither good enough to sell nor bad enough to throw away. Maybe you too have some artwork like that. What was needed was a way to bring balance and dynamism into the composition.  

Soft pastel is paper friendly like watercolor.  The pastel colors are easily rubbed and blended into the paper fibers.  With the simple addition of a makeshift stencil, a range of hard and soft edges is quickly realized.  Now, we can get back to composing which really is just drawing, guiding the eye skillfully across the picture plane.  The pastel pigments blend seamlessly with the watercolor pigments.  The whites of the paper still hold the lights and now we can really lean on some dark colors to anchor the painting.  

Thirty years ago there was no internet that I was aware of and thus no way to share my work outside of galleries and shows. Now, an image can be shared around the world and it is free.  It really doesn’t matter if the work does not fit conveniently into a category like watercolor or pastel.  It is the image that counts. 

Thirty years of experience has taught me one thing, you need to have a vision in order for a vision to come true. It is like the painting needed all those years to gestate before it could be fully realized.  Now, I understand what I could not understand then. You have to draw, and draw with intense intention. Suddenly, my drawers are full of unfinished artwork when all this time I thought that there was nothing more I could do to them.