Patience vs Persistence

I’ve long advocated for persistance. It gets things done. It keeps you plugging along, if slowly, towards the goal.

Watercolor requires patience. You have to let things dry or blend. You have to leave things untouched. There’s nothing that can take the place of that really in many situations. There is some persistence required too – to keep blending colors so you know what to use and when, to keep drawing to support your vision and to keep painting even if you don’t really feel the blessing of a wonderful view to work with. Here persistence is the long haul of ‘do the work’, to not give up if the paint doesn’t cooperate, to tell yourself – you need to stop now and finish later or tomorrow.

This is a painting I started several nights ago. I mixed one of those little plastic cups you remember from school where they held bright puddles of tempera paint. The paint was equal parts indigo and imperial purple with a small dollop of indanthrone blue. It was so dark I worried the cats would find it so I locked the cup in a rubbermaid container for safe keeping. So far so good on that.

Here’s my progress from Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: