I’m the first to admit, I can be an over-learner. Other times I don’t really care about the details, the fine minutiae, or even the over-arching tale. But when I’m trying to learn something, trying to do something, I’m there. I read, I listen, I ask questions.
I quilted for many years. I could tell you all about techniques, about the work of contemporary quilters and about antique quilts. I made several quilts a year, often a couple big quilts in there. One year, about to photograph two quilts for a competition the next day, I got up in the morning with two quilts and went to bed in the wee hours with a third totally unexpected quilt. It was a few more years before I got into that competition but I got there.
A few years after that, I made a quilt that got accepted. It was a big deal. Not only did I make the quilt but I took the slides that I sent in to be juried. That was a big deal to me. I’d learned a lot about photography in college and then didn’t use it in the way I thought I would.
Anyway, then for a few years I didn’t make quilts. Didn’t have a quilt thought in my head. One day I decided to make bread. I got a serious book about bread making (not the super-serious book that I still covet, The Taste of Bread but a great book nonetheless). I learned about the impact of temperature and action on the dough and the differences in flour and all sorts of things and learned to make a pretty darn good loaf of bread and more importantly, pizza dough. There’s something seriously alchemistic about taking flour and water and a little yeast (very little yeast) and for the pizza dough a splash of oil and making something that is life-sustaining.
I tell you this because you’ve been watching my entry into watercolor and I appreciate your response a lot. I’m warning you that there’s more to come. Because that’s what I do. I gather the tools, I take some classes, I read, I look at the work of others, I watch videos, but just like quilting and bread-making, the work is the work and it’s got to get done so I do it. I’m a beginner and I’m getting better at knowing how it works.
I have been thinking of you and your watercolor work as I watch the water and light here at N-SID-SEN, our special church camp on Lake Coeur D’Alene. Last eve the sunset turned a huge swath of the lake bright pink like the sky. We are at work camp this week and Lady if the Lake contra dance camp next week. Loving retirement!
I am enjoying your adventures in watercolor and the amazing speed of your development. That over-learning is indeed how we dive into subjects of interest and luxuriate in the flow and wonder of the process. Improvement. Quality of product. Styles and challenges. The hows of the thing and its permutations. Quilts. Bread. Watercolor. Mice. Contra dancing. EMT. Tech stuff. Gnomes. Words and language and varieties of discourse. “…getting better at knowing how it goes.” L’chaim!