 |
| What’s Left of Fall ©2011 Dora Sislian Themelis 7×10 Watercolor on Arches |
Last year I posted this watercolor still life of rocks, a favorite shell and leaves I kept in my copy of the Artist’s Way as one of the tasks of abundance. They served me very well at the time. I was already painting twenty minute works. When I decided to join in the 100 Paintings Challenge this was #1.
 |
| Four Shells with Rock ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis 7×10 Watercolor on Arches |
This watercolor painting with more of my favorite broken shells and rocks is #56 in the challenge. It will seem as if these items were the only subjects I painted, but that would be the wrong assumption.
Plenty of challenges were met in between these two paintings.
This weekend I also had time to go through all 56 paintings I did this year. Some works were twenty minute pieces. Others took a couple of days to complete. How I used the medium seems to me to be tighter on this last work than the first. My handling of watercolor evolved to where I’m more at ease with it. I learned a lot and still have far to go.
The 56 works evolved into different series of pieces, mostly still life work in watercolor. When I looked at each painting I could relive the past year. I can remember my days with every work, how I felt, what I was thinking, where I was and how I got myself to paint. It was a moment in time. A lesson of life.
Feel free to drop in some comments.
Hi Dora. I found you through Teri Casper’s blog and I’ve enjoyed sitting here reading your posts and looking at your art. I think you did a fantastic job on your self portrait and I like reading about your artistic journey. I, too, am a watercolorist and I’m stumbling through life as well.
Thank you for dropping by and commenting Katiejane. Teri’s blog helped me find out I could paint a completed work in twenty minutes. Who knew?
Its been a year of growth , Dora. You should view them all and be pleased 🙂 xx
Pat, I did exactly that. I went through each work, made a list, put them together and was happy with my progress.
Dora-
You are making me re-think the challenge, myself! We need to judge our progress by what we learned not if we finished or not. I don’t even remember how far I got before I had to let it go- now I am going to go back and take a look!
Sheryl, I got that idea from Laure at the 100 Paintings challenge. She said not to focus on the piece we just finished, but put it away immediately and later on look at a good number of pieces to see the growth.