After my last post on this blog in 2008 I put down my coaching and facilitation tools, cleaned and loaded my palette, soaked my brushes and painted.  (I never stretch paper).  It felt so good to do watercolours again.  Somehow I need to make time to sit and paint.  But that is for another discussion.  I want to reflect on how I learnt new skills as a painter

I have been reading books on watercolour technique by Charles Reid.  He has adapted alla prima oil technique (working on a painting from start to finish in one go) to watercolour.  Contrary to accepted wisdom, he will start with the darkest dark, softening edges and linking swatches with middle values.  He leaves carefully placed white paper to control the flow of colours and for highlights.  Rather than mixing on the palette, he allows colours to mix on the paper.  He does not push colour.  One stroke of wet and the colours are left to do what they want.  Though it sounds random, he knows exactly what he is doing and the process allows for exciting unplanned effects.  This is real skill.

His pictures are vibrant, wild and crackle with life.  I wanted this for my work.

Though I read his books often, I did not learn any technique.  I just enjoyed the pictures.  This holiday I determined to learn.  I read the words in the books.  Read and understood.  It was very difficult.  I found it hard to complete reading each paragraph.  I found I could only read a short passage, just one part of how he did a painting, or the instructions on how to paint an eye, for instance, before I stopped understanding the words.  So I painted, almost every day, sometimes all day and late into the night.  But my paintings remained laboured, painstaking and careful, and frustrating.

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So I read again and again.  I wanted to try something more risky and rewarding so I sat and painted with Charles Reid open next to me,  following step by step.  One mess after another.

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When I thought I was ready I had another go at a complete picture, part of which is shown below:

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My final attempt somehow it worked better.   see below:

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I tried to stick to the approach.  You can see the reds and blues in her legs.  This was exciting and had all the chance to fail.  But I like the result.  To see the whole picture you can look in my watercolour blog.

Why was it so difficult to read?  Perhaps it has something to do with:

  • Looking at the pictures being a right brain, creative and intuitive activity
  • But readingon how to recreate technique being a left-brain, linear, cognitive activity.

There must be tons of papers written on this.

As I reflected on this experience I noted:

  • Practice with reflection is key.
  • The unfamiliar really can be quite daunting.
  • It is possible to move from understanding the written word to applying the learings in practice, but it is hard work.
  • Maybe growth is not about sweeping change but many incremental, cumulative adjustments.  My learning came in small steps.  I found small changes happening.  I was able to focus on the small planes of light and colour and portray them as smaller, more caringly placed swatches of watercolour than before.  Maybe the secret is to keep up the pressure for transformation but facilitate lots of small, non-returnable changes.  And the next time you look, the world is different.
  • It felt really good to put my work out for others to see, even though my watercolour blog is very young and unknown.
  • Care – In his watercolour class, Ryno Swart  taught us to be caring not careful and that is a beautiful distinction.
  • This was hard work.  But it was such fun.  What is this passion?  I do an exercise from Jim Collins, with clients who are developing their strategy.  They have to define their passion, what they can be the best at in the world and an economic ratio that makes them look at their business in a fresh way.  I come across many individuals and teams who really don’t know their passion.  But for me when I paint I am drawn into my very own world where all else becomes irrelevant.  And the hard work is full of joy.