Seeing everyone’s paintings each month from this challenge is always such a delight.  It makes me happy to witness so many artists pushing aside their fears, doubts, and worry about creating “bad” work and participating anyways. It’s truly an incredible act of courage and commitment to be proud of.

Especially since I have found over the last 6 months of hosting this challenge that I have a knack for picking some real winners when it comes to reference photos.

And by winners, it means that they truly ARE a challenge. In other words, the #paintwithmechallenge is ACTUALLY a challenge.

I swear when I’m picking these photos I do not mean it to be so challenging! I just pick them based on feeling inspired. Not because I know how I’m going to paint them and it’ll be easy for me and but a challenge for others. I PROMISE that is not the case.

March’s bougainvilleas were a great example of that. I made 2 attempts and I wasn’t happy with either of them!

And this month, I also had to make 2 attempts, but I was actually OK with the second one.

I’ve been pushing myself to really hone in on my own techniques for painting loosely with watercolors, and it just so happened that members inside of our Paint With Me Community had voted that loose foliage was a topic of interest. So May was all about practicing loose foliage.

I approached the first attempt with the confidence that it would turn out OK but as I painted it, my confidence diminished and I decided about 85% of the way through that I would be scrapping it.

I’ve been challenging myself to “see things through” on paintings that don’t feel like they are going well. So despite the painting not going the way I wanted it to, I just let it be and carried on. Ultimately there were things I did appreciate about it more than the second “final” attempt and I’m glad I finished it anyways.

As with all practice, I was able to carry forward what I learned from the first attempt into the second attempt. And in my own humble opinion, I think it shows!

A few things I like about each:

• The foliage in the first attempt was “looser”

• The first attempt has a certain ‘moody’ feel that is interesting

• The laundry in the second attempt was much more successful

• I appreciate the finer details achieved in the second attempt

You can watch the time-lapse painting process for both attempts in the video below!

Supplies Used

• Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper (sheet) - First Painting

• Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper (pad)- Second Painting

• Princeton Hake Brush 2”

• Princeton Synthetic Brushes Series 4050R Size 6 & 12

• Daniel Smith Watercolor Paints

• Winsor & Newton Art Masking Fluid

• Artist Masking Tape

• Rubber Cement Pickup 

Colors Used

• Sap Green

• Hansa Yellow Medium

• Hansa Yellow Light

• Transparent Pyrrol Orange

• Burnt Sienna

• Ultramarine

• Payne's Grey

Reference Photo

• Lena Khrupina from Pexels

As always thank you for reading & watching,
Susan