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My thoughts on painting

Watercolor captivated my imagination when I saw how other artists had captured the feeling of sunlight and reality by simply using paint and water. I knew I had to know more about this magical medium. My journey took me so much further than I could have ever dreamed. Now I want to share that adventure with others. Discovering how to paint in watercolor was one revelation after another.

Most artists have a vision that they need to express. This vision usually can't be explained adequately with words - art has its own language and vocabulary, of visual ideas, form, color, space, art history, emotions, spirit - which need to be learned by artist and viewer, in order for us to know what an artwork is "about." By educating our eye to see relationships of color and form, and art historical references, we can learn the language of art.

This may not be crucial to enjoying art - but, as with other creative fields, such as music and literature, the more we know about what we are looking at, the more its meaning will be communicated to us. This can be done by looking at a lot of art - many different kinds - for a long time; as well as learning about the history of art, in books, gallery and museum lectures, etc. It is often thought that art is one of the inessential frills of life, that its purpose is simply to decorate a room, or to be beautiful. But the best art deals with the essentials of life - whether it be love, death, war, human relationships, or affirmation of the human spirit. Contrary to Madison Avenue, the most important things in life are intangible, most of us would agree - love, friendship, personal sacrifice, honor, etc. - things of the spirit.

Though, in the beginning of the 21st century, many of us feel that we are technologically and materially invincible, the truth is that we still don't know the answers to the eternal and most important questions: Who are we? How did we get here? How were the universes created? What happens when we die? Life itself, and consciousness, are both awesome mysteries, that fill us with wonder, if we stop to think about them. The job description of an artist is to make us look, think, and feel, by whatever means necessary, and according to the particular artist's training, vision, experience, and point of reference.

Art can be much more than a rectangular painting on a wall, or a piece of sculpture on a pedestal. Since the early 20th century, art has continued to evolve more forms, many of which cross over old or arbitrary barriers of labels and categories. Like today's music, contemporary art wants to mix forms together, and create entirely new ones. If we ask why, can't we also ask, why not? The main objective, and distinguishing characteristic, of good art, is its expression - what it is "saying." To accomplish this communication, artists need to create freely and question assumptions about art, and about themselves and their audience.

Traditional paintings (until the 20th century) tried to be an illusion of reality - as though the viewer was looking through a window into a space or the outside world. Techniques used to create this illusion of reality were perspective, foreshortening, shading to create three dimensions, and other spatial cues to give the illusion of spatial depth. In the late 19th century, artists began to put aside this need for illusion, and with Cubism in the early 20th century, created collages which had no pretensions of three dimensionality. On the contrary, they contained real pieces of fabric, chair caning, cut paper, etc., placed in a flat pattern with no attempt at perspective or other illusion of spatial depth. Paradoxically, they were not "realistic" - yet they were what-you-see-is-what-you-get - no illusion of reality - rather, the concrete reality itself. Which is more real - the illusion of a landscape on a flat surface, or a non-illusory arrangement of colors and forms?

One of the challenges when painting with watercolors is that the color you have mixed looks darker when it is still wet than after it has dried. This can make color matching or mixing up more of the same color difficult. But there is a solution, which isn't tricky but does require requires a little patience as you wait for paint to dry. Why watercolor? Because you can suggest any texture or surface, lighting or atmosphere with this innovative medium. Let me explain:

The recipe for a great watercolor painting:

• 1). Observation, observation, observation
• 2). Intelligent composition
• 3). Know how to approach painting
  the subject and in what order
• 4). Understand basic techniques
• 5). Good knowledge of mixing colors