Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries

It’s been another fun morning in the studio. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not being too serious about art over the summer. Instead, I’m playing a lot — mostly with watercolor — and just enjoying a little art time each day.

Today’s project was from Joy Ting’s “Color Play with Watercolor” class at Creative Bug. It’s titled, appropriately enough, Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries.

 

What I like most about this daily practice at Creative Bug is the sense of playfulness Joy Ting brings to her art. In every demonstration, it’s not a “do this” and “do that” series of instructions, but a more casual way of drawing, painting, and using a lot of different media. Although this painting is primarily a loose watercolor, I also used watercolor pencils and a bit of white acrylic in finishing it. Joy used several different markers, as well.

Now, this is a complete about-face from where I used to be with art demonstrations. In the past, I wanted a step-by-step set of instructions to follow. Sometimes, I still need that (as with my attempts at drawing animals). More and more, though, I’m loosening up — not just with watercolor, but with my entire attitude about art.

Practice sessions like this give me a chance to figure things out on my own. It’s been very freeing to realize that I don’t have to confine myself to a single medium. I can reach for watercolor pencils, ink markers, acrylics, gouache… whatever!

It’s fun, too, to create very playful art. This bowl of cherries watercolor isn’t realistic. It’s not meant to be. I loved adding all those little dots, and I had fun washing on a light blue background. And I think drawing all those circles in my “warm-up” drawing exercises has been helpful. Although Joy points out that it’s fine if the bowl isn’t a perfect circle, I was pleased that mine is reasonably close.

This was another opportunity for me to learn about layering watercolor. I used Brilliant Red, Crimson, and Carmine on the cherries — along with light touches of white acrylic. It was fun to paint loosely and watch the different red hues blend together to give the cherries a little bit of form.

So, yes, it was a fun day in the studio, and I came away with a playful painting, one that reminds me that life is good. I’m set now to enjoy the rest of my day. I hope you have a great day, too!