"I love color, and I love how watercolor expresses color -
the subtle blending that only watercolor can achieve. What a wonderful way to express light and feeling. Why is watercolor so often referred to as joyful or exciting? I can only share my own personal reasons why watercolor painting is special to me. The excitement starts for me when I face that startlingly white, empty sheet of beautiful rag paper. It's not just a sheet of paper; it's a carefully crafted work, made from living organic substances. The first time my brush makes contact with that paper, there is a synthesis of living things. Water, color - very often formulated from natural sources, and the cotton, which becomes the paper. These three are all living. Their interaction is soft, mysterious, and pleasing. As each succeeding brush stroke is applied to the paper, the interest increases and deepens. The very unpredictability of the medium and the expression taking place rivets one in a kind of suspended hopeful anticipation. As the painting progresses, the emergence of color and light brings a sense of something spoken, achieved, and expressed. The unknown in every watercolor painting is owed to the spontaneity of the interaction of the paper, color, and water. The artist's creativity is the catalyst that brings these together to create a painting.
Hanza Yellow and Phthalocyanine Green
These are some of the greys you can achieve with that mixture of AY, Cobalt Blue and Permanent Magenta
I love the mixture of phalo green with all sorts of yellows. With Hanza yellow, you can achieve the most brilliant green grass imaginable. See above.
mixing a luminous brown
Watercolor is about light and contrast. In this video, I attempt to illustrate the beauty that watercolor can achieve through the simple movement of the brush, and the right mixture of colors - how it can create form and feeling, and leave the most pleasing marks on your paper with its light and contrasts.