Learning Something New

Watercolor painting is something I have taken up and put down so many times over the years that I lost track of how many times I've attempted to finish just one painting. Well, I am challenging myself to pick it up again.  I read some very interesting books recently, such as: "Watercolor-The Spirit of Spontaneity" by: Karlyn Holman and another book by the same author: "Watercolor without Boundaries" plus a few others written by various authors.  Anyway, what I learned was I was approaching this medium from the wrong direction.  Being a painter most of my life, using oils & acrylics, I finally figured out that watercolors are done using the opposite approach. You start with the lightest color in your palette and build up the color, instead of creating the background first and moving forward to the final layers.  So, anyway, without going into to much detail, let me just say, the light-bulb went off and I finally feel I might be able to actually finish a painting.
I've spent the past 6 months creating a series of acrylic glaze paintings and poured acrylics, that using what I learned with these thinned paints, should help me to better master the right combination of water with paint.

This is the photo I took while in Las Vegas this past week, with the plan of creating a watercolor from the image.  Not a typical tourist photo, but I love these faded colors and the reflection from the pool is amazing.  There was a duck in the fountain, creating these wonderful ripples.  This is a patio bar outside of Caesar's Hotel & Casino on a day when it was a comfortable 74o.  Loved it!