Painting

Watercolor painting has been a helpful exercise in letting go of some control. It seems to me that painting in watercolor is like holding a baby bird. If you grasp it too loosely, it gets away from you… but hold on too tightly, and it dies. Somewhere in between is the best technique — maintaining a thoughtful, controlled approach while still allowing the watercolors to do what they do best. That’s the beauty of them — if left to their own devices, watercolors effortlessly create beautiful textures and details. As someone who tends to overanalyze and hyper-focus on the details, painting in watercolor has been a challenging but useful endeavor.

Once in a blue moon, I’ll dabble in acrylics. Whenever I do, I’m caught off guard by the ability to simply paint over a mistake. Watercolor is not so forgiving! But I still gravitate toward watercolors again and again.