Painter or artist, which are you?  We are all painters.  The work of an artist is original, your own work.  It is creative. It as a lot of you in it.  A work  of art consists of three elements: a surface for painting, pigment, and YOU.  YOU are the most important element that goes into a work of art.  When you put yourself into a painting, that is what puts life into the piece.

If you are a painter, there must be an artist inside you striving to get out.  You know that artist is in there and this is why you paint and paint and paint. You release that artist by studying with other artists. You go to museums and exhibitions.  There are hundreds of “how to” books available.  Browse through them. They all have something to say otherwise no publisher would print them.  Learn new things and adapt them to your way of thinking and painting. Some of these things will be instilled in you. You will become more creative and that artist in you will emerge.

Contributor: Aline Barker; KWS 8-22-10

Some lessons are hard but necessary, otherwise we would not remember and learn from them. When I did my first watercolor it looked more like an oil painting. Having done oils and taught them for at least 20 years before I decided to seriously TRY to do watercolor painting you may feel my pain. I did not know how to get white by letting the paper show through, (which is the white for watercolor). I looked for instant gratification. Also I could not figure out why someone would want to paint on a piece of paper that looked like ocean waves when you painted a section. All the paint ran down into the valley and left the peak nearly bare. I gave up many times. However being very frugal and having invested so much money in supplies, I could not let them go to waste. It took a great instructor to show me how (and why) to wet and stretch your paper, let it dry and when you wet it again with paint or water it would not look like a washboard. Since my main obstacle was learning the medium I have not regretted but thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Contributor: LaVerne Arkenberg; KWS 8-22-10

I had just finished a watercolor that had a lot of white background. I wanted to kill that white. I decided to wet the background and think on it. I wet the background. The same water I used was the water I used for cleaning my brushes. It was extremely dirty. That dirty water applied loosely was all the painting wanted. That water had a concentration of the pigments used in the painting.

Contributor: Aline Barker; KWS 8-22-10

Recently a student came in with watercolor paper she had soaked. She had mounted it on a wet cloth towel (dish towel size) on her painting board so that is would stay an even wetness while she painted it. This was new to her and to me, a first time experiment. It worked wonderfully. It was too wet for her to take home ( from my class) that day but the next day it had dried flat!

Contributor: Aline Barker; KWS 8-22-10