Why I Love Watercolors

The main reason that I fell in love with the watercolor media was its "happy accidents", the wonderful things that happen with water and paints that are incidental and not always in control of the artist. When I mingle paints on a wet surface and wait for the magic to happen is the beauty of this media. If an artist wants to always be in total control it might be better to work in a different media such as oil. acrylic or pastels although I do use acrylic with a lot of water in thin washes to get the spontaneous feel that I get with watercolor. It is the process of painting that turns me on rather than the product of the painting. Some of my best paintings are spontaneous and the final subject of the painting speaks to me late in the painting. I might plan what colors I use to begin a painting rather than what subject I am going to paint. After the colors mingle on the wet paper I enjoy finding the subject within this underpainting and bringing the subject forward with negative painting behind shapes that I find. This really lets the painting do the talking to the artist rather than the artist trying to take total control.

I welcome comments from other watercolor artists about their feelings as they use this media.