Why subscribe?
Come join us in The Creative Pond, Dragonflies! Let’s share and support each other in finding our unique creative vision, and making our most powerful, personally meaningful work.
I’ll be sharing my own painting journey (you’re not the only one who struggles!), along with occasional tips on watercolor and acrylic painting techniques, plus experiments and activities to help you explore and discover your own unique creative vision and style.
(Note: The Creative Pond will only publish occasionally from Jan-Aug 2024, as I will be traveling in my camper van. I plan to resume Zoom classes and coaching in the fall of 2024, and will announce those classes in this newsletter when they are available for signup.)
About me
My mission is to help you make your most powerful, personal watermedia paintings, and to explore and develop your own creative voice and style.
Like many of you, I’m a “self-taught” watercolor painter, which really means I have ten thousand teachers: artists who generously shared their knowledge in workshops, books and videos; fellow watercolor painters, and all my students over the years. That means I have a keen awareness of the frustrations and stumbling blocks (and the hidden advantages) of trying to chart your own course through the vast ocean of advice and information on how to paint in watermedia.
There’s a wealth of information online for self-taught watermedia painters, but most of it is about the technical aspects: how to lay a graduated wash, how to paint trees or fur or rocks, how to mix colors, etc. There’s not much about what I call “the other how-to”: how to design and plan for a medium that deliberately invites “happy accidents” (which aren’t always so happy!) and how to make adjustments to work in progress or to your original plan, to deal with a medium that has a mind of its own.
If you want to go beyond copying photos or step-by-step tutorials, and start designing your own paintings, you have to somehow figure out this other how-to. I’m trying to share what I can to help fill that information gap, so here on Substack I’m writing mostly about “the other how-to”, with occasional forays into technical tips for watercolor or acrylic painting, as well as occasional musings on my own creative journey.
If you’re looking for more technical how-to, I offer many free lessons and resources on the technical aspects of watercolor, including a free 6-week beginning watercolor course, on my website at dragonflyspiritstudio.com.
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Let your creative spirit soar . . .
Be part of the Dragonfly community! Creative, supportive watercolor and acrylic artists learning and painting together.
Community Guidelines
A few guidelines to keep this community supportive and help everyone find their own voice:
Please be mindful that work-in-progress often speaks in tiny whispers and delicate nudges. Try to avoid comments that push someone to develop their work in the direction you might go. Strive instead to help them find their own vision and direction.
Helpful types of comments for this:
share what you notice right away in the work, how your eye moves around the piece, what you discover as you explore further; what’s your visual experience of viewing the piece?
share the thoughts, feelings and associations the work brings up for you; what’s your inner experience as a viewer?
ask questions that might help the artist dig deeper to clarify what they want from this piece or their art in general
ask the artist if they have specific technical problems they are trying to solve (this is the place to offer advice, ideas and suggestions!)
Don’t be a lazy commenter! It might feel supportive to gush “Oh, I love those colors!” but it really doesn’t give the artist any useful information.
Push yourself to be more specific so they can get a better sense of what the piece is communicating to you: “These bright colors make me feel like I’m on vacation in a tropical paradise!”
By the same token, if you receive a comment that doesn’t seem helpful to you, remember that it’s just one person’s perspective and you can choose to ignore it. Not everyone finds the same things appealing, not all artwork is meant to be “appealing”, and not everyone is going to get your most personal, authentic work.
Each viewer brings their own history, tastes and experiences to an artwork; one person’s reactions may or may not be representative of how others might react. It’s perfectly okay to create work that only a small, select audience will “get” ,and just decide not to worry about people who don’t have the background to get what you’re saying.
If you’re posting work of your own, you can let people know whether you want feedback or comments. Sometimes, you just want to see how it feels to you to put the work out in the world. You can just tell everyone you’d prefer not to hear any comments.
Finally, please do not screenshot, download or otherwise copy or share any work posted in The Creative Pond by another artist without their permission. This is meant to be a safe place to brainstorm, experiment, revise and evolve our work in progress. Please respect the right of each artist to decide whether and when to share their work more widely.
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
