I Haven't Used Watercolors Since Elementary School

It's no secret around here that me and painting are just simply not friends. I documented my oil painting class progress, but ultimately I was never really happy with any of my paintings except for my good friend Davy Jones and my final project.

So when I was making my schedule for next fall, you can imagine my disheartened attitude when I decided that intermediate painting was a better fit than intermediate printmaking. Because some of my education classes were only offered at one time and that conflicted with the only section of intermediate printmaking, and well Bloggies, it just wasn't meant to be.

And in addition to my intermediate painting class come the Fall 2011 semester, this summer I have been enrolled into a watercolor painting class. I was actually kind of excited for this class, because it wasn't oil painting, but also I was a bit worried that I would hate it also. Besides my apparent love for mixing colors with a brush, I'd also heard things about my professor. I had heard that a lot of people didn't like him. I already took a class last semester where I hated my professor, and please oh please I didn't want my only summer class to be that way too.

So imagine my surprise when I decided that I actually liked watercolors, and I liked my professor too. Granted, we are only three days into the semester, but it's already less painful than oil painting ever was. We'll see if the fun lasts, but I'm ready for a studio class that I actually enjoy going to again.

This is the first watercolor painting I did this summer. I hadn't used watercolor paints since I was about six, it feels like. Plus, you always give the little kiddies cheap watercolors that don't really work very well anyways. Also, at six you don't really know how to use them correctly anyway - so I actually kind of hated them when I was little too. Anyway, this picture turned out fun and I really like the lamp post.

This was meant to focus on the clouds. It was starting to get stormy out, and the sky was really moody. I kept getting compliments on this painting though. One of the guys in my class took a particular liking to it for reasons that I'm not really sure, but I'm not going to complain. They say you aren't really an artist until someone outside of your family is willing to pay and display your stuff in their house.

This is our painting from today. There is a field of cows on campus, and this building is over by where they graze. It's an old creaky chicken coop looking thing. My favorite part of this painting is the tree though, to be honest.

It wasn't even by the building, I just wanted to paint it. And that's something that I absolutely love about this painting class, is that you can move things around and decide to not paint other things, it's really up to you. That's a freedom I didn't really have in my rigidly structured oil studio class. I wish I could take intermediate watercolor next semester. Maybe they'll let me use watercolors anyway?? You think? Me either.