Steve Fleming

Artist Studio

Creative Jumpstarts Grab a Brush

Jumpstarts
Watercolors

Unless you are Koko the elephant who paints will his tail or Marvin the Miraculous who paints with his feet, you will probably be using a brush to deliver your creative intentions to the canvas or the paper.  I am a firm believer that in transparent watercolor, the quality  of the brushwork is one of the most important aspects of a fine painterly painting.  Sadly though, most of us would rather do anything than practice using a brush, we want to paint the major masterpiece and so it is one painting after another ad nauseum with little or no improvement in one’s work.  I say drop the rock and loosen up and let that brush entertain you on the paper.

Turn on some wonderful music stand up, stack up a bunch of failed paintings, turn them over, white side up, grab a few brushes, lots of water, fresh color, and a few scraping tools and let the brush dance its’ way across the paper.  Draw lines, splatter paint, make it thick and dark and light and loose.  Feel the brush and learn to adjust and shift the brush across the paper.  Don’t think about right or wrong just go with the music.  You will have a great time and even paint the occasional winner, you might even improve your dance moves.  I won a nice award in a regional show several years ago and sold the painting for a large amount of money and it was just the fruits of my labor from one of my twenty minute brushwork sessions while listening to ACDC.  I know ACDC but I love rock and roll and James Taylor is so Barry Manilow with a better pedigree.

Have fun more on this subject later.

22 x 30 Watercolor on Paper “Tina Turner”

18 x 24 Watercolor on Paper “Fall”

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