Control, matter, and focus

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Further to my post about discovering water - there is the aspect of giving up control. Water does its own thing and it should be allowed to.
Let the watercolor happen - don't make it happen.
Letting go in life is important too - to be more detached, to be less controlling, and let things be, and to accept it all. On a microscopic scale, that is happening in watercolor. If I'm not too fixed about the outcome I want, I am not so disappointed, and more accepting of whatever happens. This graphic of focusing on what matters is ideal to understanding this.

Image result for venn diagram things you can control

In the same way. letting a watercolor be, and being okay with whatever happens, is important for growth. Each time I paint, I am trying to let go just a little - it helps to spill or spray water on a work in progress just to see what happens, to practice letting go of the attachment I feel for a painting, and I really have no idea what exactly will happen. Each time I do that, though, I brace for the result, and grow just a little in being able to let go. And I'm liking the results I see - more watery, more unexpected, more beautiful, and even if I totally ruin a painting, there is always more paper, and more time. And I'll be infinitesimally better in the next iteration - so what's to lose?
On the way back from Tomales Bay, on Hwy 101, I saw this rig thingy - probably to break down rocks into aggregate for concrete - a sister of the version I saw at Granite Rock in Santa Cruz. This was Shamrock Materials, and it whizzed by too fast for me to take a picture. I came home and looked it up, and found the one I had seen, as well as another branch in Petaluma. This is a watercolor of the latter.


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