Watercolor as life

For me, watercolor painting is not only a technique but also a philosophy. It’s like a life that you only live once. There is only one life!

Each glaze is visible, and a clean, white sheet is a non-return point.

In watercolor, you cannot undo the action, and you cannot gloss over something, scrape off something. Each watercolor is a small life, sometimes dirty and worn out, but always honest, always sincere. It is for this sincerity that I love watercolor. It is this frankness that is absent in oil and acrylic.

Watercolor instills discipline, teaches not to get hung up on trifles, teaches to plan, but most importantly, it teaches to trust the will of chance. Working with watercolors, thoughts can go somewhere far, far away. It’s so important to believe and trust. And water itself will paint a fantastic picture for you, which a human hand cannot create.

No matter how it flows and no matter what stains it dries up, the work must be carried out, it is necessary to finish. Can’t be left to chance.

Watercolor is like life, it can be excitingly bright, spontaneous, extravagant. Or it can be restrained and dignified. Or maybe dirty and worn. In the hands of a master, it is impressive and unique. Mastery in watercolor is, first of all, ease, lightness.

Watercolors are so similar to life, and I love them equally. The watercolor painting is so gorgeous!

Light and airy watercolor painting

Watercolor paintings are so light, fresh, creating a unique atmosphere of the work. It is not for nothing that the watercolor work is considered the airiest, transparent, most elegant technique. Watercolor drawings are the most delicate work, enchanting with their tenderness, lyricism, and perfection. Good watercolors seem to glow from the inside, white paper always “sounds” through a thin layer of water-based paints. Watercolor does not like corrections and multiple registrations, so an artist working in this technique must draw confidently and accurately, and feel the color unmistakably.

Watercolors are just like a human being – it is almost made of water, and it has a soul. Its soul creates delicate, wonderful, airy watercolors. They hide softness, lightness, a subtle transition of color, blurring of strokes as if woven from various shades, barely perceptible to the eye: light tones, halftones, thick tones … all this gives airiness and transparency … It is not for nothing that artists value watercolor’s technique for its exceptional expressiveness for the opportunity to get clean, fresh, and transparent tones as a result of work … Sometimes a little melancholic, touching, and a slight sadness of “airiness “and lightness, watercolors fascinate, attract, beckon to their light, warm world, and gentle fairy tale. And sometimes they are bright, emotional, passionate and impetuous, like love. How much beauty, grace, a light understatement allows directing the flight of fantasy into any of the dimensions.

I want to admire watercolors for hours, dreaming of the beautiful, even if unrealizable. I don’t know what more accurately than watercolors can convey the mood and the subtlest energies of life … and such a gentle feeling emanating from the very heart. Watercolor painting is a beautiful, joyful, amazing, unusually soft, light, pearlescent world … it is always a little real and unreal … there is a state in it, several grounds … One is closer, the others are farther. When you simultaneously feel both lightness and depth, space, its pure, bright, and unique light and color, weightlessness, the transparency of the watercolor perfectly conveys the entire atmosphere of the romantic world, at the same time tenderness and passion. 

Watercolor painting is a beautiful moment

An artist can work with watercolors in any style, experimenting with effects. You can work in a wet technique, painting on wet paper and, or on dry paper. You can control the edges or give freedom to unbridled watercolor, allowing the elements to decide for themselves which texture to create and what volume and color.

First, you choose a plot, draw a drawing on paper with light pencil lines. You pick up the colors. Thoroughly moisten a sheet of paper. And then you start applying paint. First, with timid movements, then more and more boldly. And now your hand itself leads you, you kind of dissolve with this new emerging plot. As if some unknown master is showing you the way. And on paper, gorgeous flowers are beginning to appear, illuminated by the bright sun. Living bizarre leaves curl, framing precious pearls of bright inflorescences. You live through this fantastic moment, which can last up to several hours. And you want it never to end. And then you return to this beautiful feeling again and again.

Watercolor is a wealth of color

The palette of watercolors is surprisingly rich, in addition to the primary colors, it includes colors with various effects: pearlescent, iridescent, chameleons, granulating shades. The transparency and graininess of the ink may vary depending on the selected color. The most elegant watercolors are made from natural minerals. The palette of colors is balanced and amazingly beautiful, with colors from delicate pastel shades to bright and saturated colors with special effects.

Watercolors are amazing people

And the most important thing is why I came to watercolor painting and why I appreciate and love it so much – it is for that strong friendship, for support for an invaluable experience. This is for that the society of watercolor painters around the world. These are such generous, kind people – they are happy to share with beginners all the innermost secrets of watercolor mastery. There are not many free videos in any technique, master classes when incredible artists show with love and teach their novice colleagues. Watercolor means festivals, fun, mutual support of people close to you in spirit. Watercolor is a style and philosophy of life.

Why else do I love watercolor?

First, because it’s fast! This is aт impetuous technique! And this is absolutely wonderful because in creating a picture, a plot is being born and developed. Emotions overwhelm an artist. And only the swift watercolor keeps up with the flight of the artist’s imagination, his feelings, and sensations.

Secondly, because the only watercolor can convey the first impression of what you see, precisely because of its speed! Other colors are capable of capturing the sunrise in a matter of minutes, when everything happens so quickly and changes every second!

And thirdly, I love watercolor for its accessibility. Oil painting artists need canvases, special thinners and other equipment. Besides, such a painting dries for a very long time. Smell. Whether it’s a watercolor! How easy it is to carry sheets of paper with you. Dries quickly, no smell.

Watercolor is the best thing in painting! There is nothing more exquisite and more magnificent than watercolor!