My Thoughts:on watercolor Practice and Development days

While taking Angela Fehr's Watercolor Workout class earlier this year I was introduced to the term Development Day. She mentioned that not all of her watercolor studio times are spent making beautiful paintings, some days are just not that productive. I call those days Development days.
So I pondered about those Development Days she mentioned and have come up with some great insights for me to follow in my own practice.



self-portrait from WC Workout class
  1. Development days are for us to enjoy. I recently found a quote from Van Gough, it reads: I am always doing what I can not do yet. In order to learn how to do it. I think we would do well to keep an open mind of what art is really all about! (it's about the process and learning how to create good art.)
  2. Stretching and pulling ourselves to new ideas, new techniques will only help us learn and grow, so if you are fairly new to painting like I am (I had dabbled in it my whole life but two years ago I decided enough was enough and I decided that watercolor painting will be my focus!) 
  3. Serious Art comes from Serious Play... This comes from Julie Cameron The Artist's Way and her second book Walking in this World. I learned this by having those development days and just playing around with materials I had on hand. It helps to be fearless when playing with materials. Most of the time I don't love it, but then I get those paintings that I learned from and think, wow! I am so going to develop that technique to work in my paintings! 
  4. Creating art is all about the Process. What do I mean by that, I mean that I can't always make perfect watercolor cards, (I could) and it would look "all right" I want my heart and soul in my art, so to paint from your heart you have to understand that it's about the process. What are you trying to say and paint it? will it takes 3-10 tries, you bet it will, but the outcome is far more important than "getting it done" (think about all the water lily paintings Monet painted.) Why? Becuase he loved the process of creating art.
simple floral study to play with new techniques
So I am taking one day at a time with my heart led painting, and if it doesn't turn out right, then I say, that was a fun time, and I am glad I had a development day. YOU CAN'T RUSH ART!

Keep on Creating! 











If you want to start your watercolor journey I recommend her free class: WaterColor Jumpstart a 4-week course. It's free and I visit it often to learn the basics. 
If you want to continue your Watercolor Journey, Angela has her watercolor mastery class open to take, I recommend it if you want to take your watercolor to the next level, she is amazing at helping her students become their favorite artist!



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