Paint What You Love

Day 261: After two pitiful attempts at painting a scientifically-accurate Delphinium, I was beginning to feel rather frustrated and was questioning whether or not watercolours were a medium I could work in. I went a couple of days without drawing anything before saying as much to an artistic friend, but when I confided in her that I was feeling "rather deflated," she said I needed to shut off the strongly dominant analytical portion of my brain. I wasn't quite sure how to do that, but the following afternoon as I sat at the window with a Delphinium spike immediately outside, I thought, "Okay, I will try to paint what a Delphinium feels like." Using the actual plant only as a general reference, I did a quick pencil sketch and then moved into the kitchen to paint it, the model out of sight. When I was done, there was no question as to what flower I had portrayed: unmistakably a Delphinium, and decidedly a better representation than my first two attempts. The next day, I ventured out into the Barren Wasteland in early morning light, captured the basic shapes of California Poppies, Rose Campion and peppermint, applying watercolours indoors in a location where I could not see the plants. Again, the painting is not scientifically accurate, but the plants are readily recognizable. Yesterday's subject was a fidgety Goldfinch who perched in the raspberries, and although I took quite liberal artistic license with the composition, both bird and plant are identifiable. Maybe there's hope yet that my clinical mind can give way to its poorly developed creative counterpart to allow me to express my love of nature in watercolours. All three paintings were done on 5.5" x 8.5" mixed-media paper.