watercolour 101

last week i mentioned that i was starting an art class.  well the first class was cancelled due to weather.

class was on this week!  i have been very excited about starting this!  i have always thought it was incredible that people were able to paint scenery, portraits, animals.  whatever.  i never, ever thought i would be able to do it. 

well last night, i surprised myself!  i actually painted!  and it is something that i am thinking about hanging on a wall! (it may be the basement wall, but a wall none the less LOL!)

the class is small.  only 4 students.  myself, my friends J and R, and one gentleman, G.   our teacher M, teaches out of her home.  she is very talented, and makes it look sooooo easy. 

we are set up in her basement.  it is a lovely area, with a fireplace, and some soft music playing in the background.  she does not rush.  she answers questions, and helps us.  R and I have never done this before.  J is on her second time around and she missed the first 4 classes in the fall.  G seems to know what he is doing.  he has brought a sketch book with him, full of pencil drawings he has done. 

M treats us all the same.  she has a slightly british accent, and her voice is very encouraging. 

first we are given a sheet of paper and asked to tape in along the lines to a heavy piece of plastic.  first we draw a line for the horizon. we then sketch very lightly, some mountains in the distance, and a few scrubby looking scribbles which apparently will become trees.  then we soak the area we are going to be painting with water.  now this is nothing like the watercolour painting i remember from my childhood. 

what happens next is incredible!  i dip my brush in some paint and spread it on the water-soaked paper.  i listen to M, as she tells us how to blend, and the when to add a little more water.  how to add colours to create texture.  how to use a crumpled up piece of kleenex to take some of the paint off and just like that a cloud appears.   with different colours and different brushes, we become artists!  imagining the way the light is shining, we create shadows, and with a fine brush there appears a tree, stark and void of leaves.

the process is amazing! 

i did 3 paintings in 3 hours.  i never could have imagined i would be able to do this. 

here are the results. 

painting #1

painting #2

painting #3

so?  what do you think?