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Watercolor as therapy: learning to give up control through painting
Watercolor has a life of its own and behaves as it wants, while I try to learn from the flow of water on paper
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At the end of last year, I got a watercolour paint set from a dear friend. I’ve always loved painting and expressing myself through art, and I have longed to try this technique based on water and colored pigments. Perfectionism, however, pursued me with the same intensity as the desire to get the brushes. I started watching several tutorials on Youtube, trying to unravel the mysteries to paint the right way. But what is the right way? Does that even exist?
After a few experimental brush strokes, I laid the brushes aside for a while, until mid-March, in the first quarantine weeks — when social networks popped up ads for free online activities to do at home — I decided to take one of these watercolor courses for beginners, on a website that had granted access to all its content. There were three or four short classes to paint flowers, inspired by a photograph. To my surprise, it seemed so … easy? Where were the rules and complicated instructions?
