Watercolor Beach Waves

The desire for looseness in my work continues to fuel my interest in watercolor painting. I’ve written before about why watercolor is hard to work with, but also why it’s so worth it to try.

Watercolor is a medium, that seems to encourage simplification of details.

The watercolor flows and has a mind of its own, defying, at times, our best efforts to control it. And in fact, seems to taunt us when we try too hard, resulting in tell-tale brush marks that reveal overworking.

Of course, watercolor can be more easily controlled when working in a smaller space with less water and still have beautiful results. But what I’m talking about here is getting the paper wet, the brush moving, and the details simplified.

It’s a practice I continue to challenge myself to work at. Some days I find myself ‘letting go’ more than others.

In the video (see below), I practiced simplifying details from a beach waves photograph.

I talk through how I chose to simplify both the painting process and the details to create an abstracted/simplified version of the reference photo.

Watching my process might help if you’re working on loosening up your paintings too - or just looking for a way of taking on this beach scene! Click here or on the image below to watch the video:

As always, thank you for reading!
Susan