Minimalism

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Further to what I said in 'The history of a painting' where you can retrace the steps through the layers you see in a watercolor, thus every mark you make in a watercolor leaves something behind for the viewer to see.
Today I was working with one of my favorite subjects to practice and attempt again: St. Nicholas Church in Los Altos.  It is simple, quick, easy to sketch to do multiple versions, has a beautiful, unusual form with straight lines and curves, and has dramatic lighting and shadows (in the photo I took).
I was playing with two things: 1. minimalism - just the bare suggestion of form and minimal palette as well, and 2. my newly-discovered world of watermarks and wateriness. It's strange it took me 2.5 years to discover the water in watercolor.
What I discovered in this exercise is that if the drawing is more or less accurate, and there are enough whites [of the paper], and some dark calligraphic marks, the watercolor should work regardless of how little/much the medium field is. I may have to eat my hat if I find this to not be true later in my journey. (Two paintings can hardly make a theory).
By the way, this is what keeps me going - the magic that the water and color do on the paper that I could not have predicted [but am trying to understand to some level of predictability] and small and large wins. After my painting "Saturday Lunch" was accepted into the Small Works Exhibit in Key West, FL, it sold on opening night :-) (there were not that many that sold that first night - another reason to celebrate). It will hang in some home far away from me and the owner will look at it [a lot, hopefully] and I will never see it again. That pleases me - the letting go.









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