Paint What You Love

"What do you paint?" a woman whom I met at the gardener's market asked me.  Before I could answer my friend replied that I painted flowers with watercolor.  "How do you get the watercolor to stick to the flowers" was her next question.  Some questions just have no answer.

When I started out painting I did paint a lot of close up views of flowers.  They sold very well.  I even tied for second place for the "People's Choice" award at a large group exhibit at Palmer's Gallery in Salt Lake City which by the way was my first experience of showing in a big city gallery.  You would think I would stay with that subject and maybe some day I will go back to painting flowers but I want to learn to be good at painting any subject.  Then I can choose flowers or something else because they are my favorite subject not out of avoiding subjects I might find too difficult to paint.  

It is said that watercolor is the most difficult medium to learn and portraits the most difficult subject.  I started out with watercolors and now I'm trying to master painting portraits.  It might be the stubborn streak inside of me that drives me to continue trying to capture the essence of the person but I don't think so.  For now at least I find that I LOVE figurative painting.  Some like this one that I posted last year are done more completely in watercolor.  And others like the man below are just quick watercolor studies and will eventually turn into a full painting. 

Watching and Waiting

watercolor 11x14

Don

watercolor study