Lessons in Patience...from Watercolor

Those that know me will know I am not exactly KNOWN for my abundance of patience.  I have gotten better with age, experience, and WATERCOLOR!  This beautiful medium is a lesson in patience.  The qualities of watercolor that make it so beautiful – the softness of colors, the transparency of colors, the blending… all of these elements take patience.  The joy of watching the pigments blend and dance in the water can sometimes evolve into a less than desirable result.

 To get the outcome you are looking for, many times one needs to step away, allow layers to dry.  Come back later, look at it with fresh eyes.  Sometimes I work on a piece that I think is just HORRIBLE, only to find it in my reject pile and see it as wonderful art, waiting for me to coax it out.

This piece is called “Patience”.  If you have been following me, you can probably tell that it is not typical of my art.  The colors are different.  The style is different.  I had started it a while ago, only to put it in the reject pile.  I had some vision with these colors that never worked itself out.  I picked it up a few days ago, and it just spoke to me.  Everywhere I had these hearts emerging…..colored hearts, negative space hearts.  I love this piece.  So different for me.  So filled with patience.  Patience to see what was there.

On this day, election day, let’s have some patience with each other.  Let’s exercise our right as Americans and vote for our choice of elected officials.  Let’s have patience with those that choose differently.  We are Americans, hearts, all of us.  Let’s be kind to each other and have the patience that it takes to make art, and come at this with fresh eyes once the election is over.  I have confidence that the hearts will emerge, they are already there.