World Watercolor Month

World Watercolor Month is in the can! It’s done, finished…over…

As I mentioned back in July in my article Quantity-Quality-Or Both, participating in challenges such as World Watercolor Month gives me an opportunity to produce a number of watercolor sketches—quantity. As I reviewed them this weekend I noticed that, as I thought, some were higher quality than others.

I also noticed that as I got closer to finishing the month, quality seemed to go down…until that LAST painting. My first painting last month for World Watercolor Month was the Crape Myrtle on the left.

I decided to stick with my flower theme with a painting of desert roses I call “The Yellow Roses of Texas”. I think these two pieces are good enough to go up for sale this fall at the annual Die Künstler von Fredericksburg Fine Arts Show and Sale in November.

They both show that at the beginning of the month I was very much engaged with the challenge and took my time with my work. As an artist I’m also interested in what people like in my work. I use Instagram to post all my work on challenges such as this World Watercolor Month and it’s interesting seeing what people tend to like. Many artists will tell you that what we may think of as a masterpiece is greeted with a cool reception whereas a work we feel is…meh…will be greeted with people demanding more!

A third of the way through the challenge I felt two of my best works popped up, my fly fisherman and my hawksbill turtle. Both of these were fun and interestingly done in two different styles. The turtle was done without pen & ink while the fly fisherman, as you can see, pops with the pen & ink. Oh and a note on that sketch. I’ll be painting another one of this fellow with a bit different sky, that’s why I’ve been working on sky studies, and a different colored shirt. I’ll share the results in the future.

I’ll also be working on my hawksbill turtle. It’s another one I quite enjoyed and it got a nice reception. In fact, Ilene and I are considering using this one for a shower curtain in our new Oliver Travel Trailer. It looks pretty cool!

As the month progressed I found myself pushing to get something, anything out for the challenge. Part of my problem was boredom. Not that I was bored with making the art, it was the boredom of feeling like I was back at work and HAD to get something done rather than WANTING to have fun and make art. It’s the old argument, do you make art for the love of making art or do you do it for the money. Although I wasn’t being paid for the art, it was like I was no longer retired and working for a living again…ugh.  Noticeably, my quality slipped during this period.

I did, however, push on and experiment a bit. Inspired by my friend and art instructor Nan Henke, I began experimenting with different techniques on the same subject. One experiment was what I wrote about last week, Sky Studies. Another was a still life with fruit. Here’s the result of a pen & ink, shadow, and straight watercolor study on a lemon and lime I cut up as a subject:

 

By the end of July I was getting a bit burned out but managed to end, I think, on a fairly high note thanks to my cousin Gretchen. She posted a lovely photo of a butterfly on a flower and I couldn’t help painting it. This is another one I’ll probably “tweak” in the future.

All-in-all, World Watercolor Month was a good time but I think I’m done with “daily challenges” for awhile. I’ll just do my daily thing at my pace and for the love of making the art. Although…October is also Inktober and since Ilene and I are traveling to the Holy Land that month I’m sure I’ll be inspired to put pen & ink to paper.

Hope you have a wonderful week, in the meantime…go make some art!