Learning to Trust Myself as an Artist

Deadwood Trio - watercolour by Angela Fehr

Well, I began this painting during my exhibition at our local mall.  I had brought my painting stuff and a handful of 8x10 photos of the cranberry swamp that I visit yearly with my grandmother, and started a new painting.  I didn't get very far into the painting, just into the first or second wet-in-wet wash, and I realized that I loved the effect, the light and flow of the paint on the paper.  "I wish I could stop right here," I thought.  And then I kept painting.

Linda Kemp is smarter than me.  While I was satisfied with the finished painting, it never regained the freshness that was in that early stage, and I wish that I had trusted myself enough to stop, to step back and figure out a way to keep the transparency and light while still pursuing further detail.  And I wish that I hadn't thought "People won't understand my painting unless it looks like something," and had painted what I thought was beautiful.

But that was just one painting.  I get to paint again, and again, and again! And I get to figure it out as I go, and make each painting different, and try different things and experiment.  Now just to find the time to do so - my kids have been sick and my husband in need of an extra pair of hands.

I'm dreaming now of taking a workshop from Linda Kemp and am awaiting an information packet on how I can bring her to my hometown!  Anybody wanna join me?