Working in Watercolor

watercolor study from a photo by Edward Curtis

Around here the main topic of conversation is how tired we are of wintery weather.  Granted, we haven't had the big storms that hit further north, or the tornadoes that have wreaked terror in the South, but spring just refuses to comes.  The daffodils are finally blooming, as is the forsythia, but it's cold and overcast, and twice I've gone out in the morning and shook snow off the flowers.  I am tired of my sweatshirts and sweaters and down comforter.

The upside of this is that I have been inside painting.  I went to the figure drawing studio in Whitewater Monday night, one of three artists there, and tried my best to work only in pencil and watercolor.  I wouldn't show anyone the results, though I enjoyed the time I spent there.

 I've been working my way through exercises in several Charles Reid books, even watching a VCR tape I ordered  from another library.  I sure don't paint like Reid does, though I try to remember what he says about using color, creating lost and found edges, and figures in general.  This portrait is something I did today, a second try, actually, at painting from a black and white photo of a Native American woman taken by Edward Curtis.  I know I overworked it, but I still like the way it turned out.  I wonder if I'll ever make confident strokes and not go back over my light and dark areas.