Every artist has one medium with which he or she feels most comfortable using. Watercolor is NOT that medium for me. So why did I suddenly have this overwhelming desire to paint with watercolors? It was five weeks spent on an island off the shore of Florida, walking the beach, listening to the soothing, rhythmic sounds of the waves, and experiencing it all at various times of day. There was constant change, yet it was the same. Watching the waves form, first as a darker line of color, then seeing the frothy white foam rise on top and finally come crashing down as the waves rushed toward shore, was fascinating!

And suddenly the desire was There, the desire to try to capture the translucence and depth of the water, and the power of those foaming waves. And, for some reason, I felt it had to be in watercolor.

Watercolor has been my nemesis in the past. It has not given me the effects I wanted; in fact it often turned out rather wishy-washy and uninteresting. What is interesting is that I should choose it now to attempt something new…

After a disastrous first attempt, which turned out to be great for showing me my weaknesses and reminding me of a few things I had forgotten, I began a “for real” ocean scene. And the first thing I did was mess up the sky–again! I then went over part of the area with another wash of blue, and for some reason tried to scratch out lines with the brush handle. What happened was that the scratches immediately soaked up more color than the surrounding area. Not good. I had better luck with the rest of the painting, even getting the water look on top of some of the sand.

OK… I feel better about this picture. It’s not finished yet, so I may still have some unexpected learning to do.