April 2026

Painting in the flow

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Church at Naselle, WA

I felt like I was “in the flow” when I painted this watercolor. I began by painting a loose blue outline, then I used my big brush to lay in wet washes of red and purple on the roof and the sides of the church. As they began to flow into one another and create interesting blends, I kept using my brush to add more washes. It felt like it was a dance. Everything came together without effort.

After I let it dry, I added the figures and the background. You can see that they’re more forced and awkward. But I’m happy with the overall looseness of this painting.

I made this watercolor from a photo I took at Nasalle, WA.

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Dances with daffodils

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watercolor painting of two vases of daffodils
My second attempt

— “And then my heart with pleasure fills/ and dances with the daffodils.”

— William Wordsworth, “I wandered lonely as a cloud”

For our weekly class, our teacher Eric Wiegardt painted a demo of a bouquet of daffodils. I went back later and viewed the recording of the demo, painting step by step with the recording. My first attempt was labored and tight (see below), but my second attempt (above) was much better. The bouquet on the left is loosely defined, just a suggestion of daffodils. But the bouquet on the right has one daffodil, a white one, that stands out to define daffodils. Pretty happy with this one.

Eric says that he tries to stay abstract as long as possible. Make flower shapes but don’t define them right away. Let the flower washes bleed into one another and add some other color. Then add the dark shapes of greenery and begin to define one or two flowers by outlining them slightly. Finish with some soft background washes and add some detail using the thin sword striper brush.

Here’s my first clumsy attempt:

watercolor painting of two vases of daffodils
My first attempt

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