Watercolor Conversations with Cara Brown

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This is an accidental episode that came out of a conversation with my Claude.ai, of all things.  It used a word that sent me into my archive to an episode that gets at a mysterious aspect of art-making.  I take a stab at it, though it may not be something that can truely be put into words.  

The post that Claude's word sent me to is here:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com/journal/art-life-stories/april-19-2016-ordinary-sacred-stillness-every-painting/.  You can see the painting Douce that I describe here. 

I end with a teaser about episodes to come - actual watercolor conversations with other watercolorists!

Cara Brown - Watercolorist - Teacher - www.lifeinfullcolor.com
...is where you can find all my paintings, workshop offerings and the entire archive of my writing.

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A tender episode about how we can look at big disappointments in life in a way that both allows our grief and loss - and mines the power in them - to live our lives  with meaning that we'd not have without the loss.  This is my story - my watercolor story, specifically. 

I'm a big fan of singer-songrwriter Sara Bareilles.  Immersing myself in her new album, Good Grief, sent me to a related post that I share in this episode.  Go to  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com/journal/art-life-stories/june-9-2015-the-gift-in-our-unlived-life/, to read what I wrote and see the paintings that were in the big plastic bag under my bed. 

Cara Brown - Watercolorist - Teacher - www.lifeinfullcolor.com
...is where you can find all my paintings, workshop offerings and the entire archive of my writing.

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Ten years ago I pulled an oracle card that gave me this edgy message - "destruction before creation."  At first I recoiled from it - no, not this one!  I invite you to hear how I soon found my way to the wisdom in it - and to how it's guiding my creative life again - right now.

The post that I landed on while cooking the vegetables I'd just picked from our garden is here:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com/journal/art-life-stories/june-28-2016-destruction-creation/ if you'd like to read.  

Cara Brown - Watercolorist - Teacher - www.lifeinfullcolor.com
...is where you can find all my paintings, workshop offerings and the entire archive of my writing.

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Underneath the color, the water, the light, the composition — woven through it all— is ingredient we haven't expressly talked about.  You.

No matter how much experience you have, or how much success you've found, you are never NOT in your paintings.  There is only one of you that will ever exist in all of time. Only one person who can make the art you're here to make.

Learning to paint mostly isn't about the techniques. It's about becoming more yourself — and revealing that to the rest of us in what you make.  

This episode is my spiel about how precious it is that we do this thing, this making of paintings on watercolor paper - as only we each can.  

Thank you for being here. I'm so glad you're listening - and painting.

Cara Brown — Watercolorist — Teacher — lifeinfullcolor.com

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Composition!  It's a step back to consider what goes in and what doesn't, what variety to include, how elements relate to each other - and then how all of that will be bounded in shape and size.  I'm sharing my thoughts on how it is that consider all of this in my paintings - my process of composing a painting.  I don't follow rules, I don't even think too much.  It's a felt thing.  In case reflecting on my process is helpful, here it is!

The "round" painting I menonted in the episode is here:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com/gallery-available-originals/eternal/

Go to my website - below - to see the outcome of composing all my paintings over the years.

Cara Brown - Watercolorist - Teacher - www.lifeinfullcolor.com
...where you can find all my paintings, workshop offerings and the entire archive of my writing.

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We started this series with color. Now, with several episodes of painting experience behind us, we come back to it — and it looks different from here.

This episode draws from my second color workshop - where we limit the paints we work with.  I start with an idea that genuinely blew my mind when I first realized it:  the primary colors we all learned in grade school aren't the real primary colors.  

We also look at what happens when you deliberately limit your palette. I've painted with six paints, with four, and with just three. What I've found is that a limited palette doesn't just create harmony and cohesion in a painting — it grows you as a color mixer. 

And there's an exercise: invent colors in your head and try to mix them. Olive green. Straw gold. Terra cotta. Navy blue. Red wine. Sepia. It sounds simple. It's kind of mind-blowing. And it is how you actually learn to mix color — by doing it.

I periodically offer Color II - Limiting, Layering and Claiming Your Colors in person in the studio and live online.  You can sign up for my email newlsetters on my website:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com, where you can also see all my art and the workshops I offer, incuding this one!

Cara Brown - Watercolorist - Teacher - www.lifeinfullcolor.com
...where you can find all my paintings, workshop offerings and the entire archive of my writing.

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My antidote for overwhelm.  If when faced with a complicated section of a painting, you've thought:  how on earth am I going to paint this? — this episode is for you.  It's the other half of the Making it Real pair of workshops.  

Painting detail isn't about special techniques or clever tools. For me it's more about strategies to stay with it, keep from trying to "organize" the detail in your reference, and paint just enough detail to make the point, but not so much it becomes distracting.  

I've found that crazy-detailed sections reveal themselves progressively — once you've painted something, the next steps become clearer. 

Here's Blush - a painting I mention in this epside:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com/gallery-floral-still-life/blush-2/  It was the lower part of the right-hand peony that sent me on tilt.  

This is a workshop in my series Watercolor Basics and Beyond.  I plan to offer it in segments online coming soon. If you'd like to be notified, you can sign up for my email newlsetters on my website:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com, where you can also see all my art and the workshops I offer, incuding this one!

Cara Brown - Watercolorist - Teacher - www.lifeinfullcolor.com
...where you can find all my paintings, workshop offerings and the entire archive of my writing.

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This episode is one half of the Making it Real  workshops from Watercolor Basics and Beyond. Creating volume — when it seems like you could reach out and actually grab the subjects of a painting.  

In order to do so, we make use of what I shared in the past three episodes.  Water and edges. Shape, shade, color. Light and dark. Soft backgrounds. All of it comes together here, helping our art to look like its subjects come off the paper!

Link to the painting Fascination, I mentined:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com/gallery-available-originals/fascination/

This is a workshop in my series Watercolor Basics and Beyond.  I plan to offer it in segments online coming soon. If you'd like to be notified, you can sign up for my email newlsetters on my website:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com, where you can also see all my art and the workshops I offer, incuding this one!

Cara Brown - Watercolorist - Teacher - www.lifeinfullcolor.com
...where you can find all my paintings, workshop offerings and the entire archive of my writing.

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Besides "the light,"  a characteristic of my paintings are my out-of-focus backgrounds.  I'm asked often how to make this happen.  I this episode I share my thoughts - about working with the paint and brushes to make distinct shapes with soft edges.  it can be tricky!

They are more work than some artists want to put into the areas around their subjects, but I find them an important part of the story our paintings are telling.

This is a workshop in my series Watercolor Basics and Beyond.  I plan to offer it in segments online coming soon. If you'd like to be notified, you can sign up for my email newlsetters on my website:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com, where you can also see all my art and the workshops I offer, incuding this one!

Cara Brown - Watercolorist - Teacher - www.lifeinfullcolor.com
...where you can find all my paintings, workshop offerings and the entire archive of my writing.

Send us Fan Mail

The illusion of light in our paintings is a magical thing.  Using just contrast between dark and light  - and the subtleties of relative shades between, we can create a world.  In this episode, the forth in our series, hear how in response to a short question, I came up with the four aspects of how it is that I (at least) create worlds of light in my paintings. 

Includes ideas from a post orignally published under the same title "Painting the Light" on May 31, 2017 which can be found  here:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com/life-stories/may-31-2017-painting-light/ 
This page includes photos of example paintings.

This is the second workshop in my series Watercolor Basics and Beyond.  I plan to offer it in segments online coming soon. If you'd like to be notified, you can sign up for my email newlsetters on my website:  https://www.lifeinfullcolor.com, where you can also see all my art and the workshops I offer, incuding this one!

Cara Brown - Watercolorist - Teacher - www.lifeinfullcolor.com
...where you can find all my paintings, workshop offerings and the entire archive of my writing.