What You Can Miss Seeing

At the moment, I am working on two watercolor paintings. The subject matter for these paintings is the sand orchids of Greece which I mentioned in my last blog.

As I was painting and enjoying the range of colors which were happening because I was using a technique called glazing and defining negative space. I use the technique often because it is truly one of my favorite watercolor techniques. As I was enjoying the moment painting, I realized how this beauty and detail is lost in a reproduction of the painting.

You miss seeing this color and detail when you view a watercolor painting online or buy a print. Only when you see the original watercolor painting can you see the variation of colors. It is similar to viewing the dots or blobs of paint of a pointillist or impressionist painting. From a distance, these dots and blobs blend and the experience is different than viewing up close.

Thus, when you view a watercolor painting online you will miss out on all the nuances of its creation. Always ask to see the original or treat yourself to a visit at an art show of original works.

Here are a couple of details of the stems of the sand orchids in my current watercolor paintings:

Kindred Souls

Claude Monet, one of the best-loved of all artists, was a leading figure in the Impressionist circle. His first subjects reflected the world he knew; the boats of his native Le Havre, the streets of Paris, and the fields and forests of the surrounding countryside. But the subject that was closest to his heart, and dominated his later work, was his garden a Giverny, 65 kilometres northwest of Paris.

For Monet, his garden was a private haven, where domestic pleasure and artistic vision converged. Monet cultivated his garden as a continual source of renewal and inspiration and chose his plantings as carefully as he chose the colors for his palette. The paintings he created in his garden are some of his most famous.





Painting and gardening were the two most powerful influences in his life according to author Debra Mancoff, Monet's Garden in Art. I find myself sharing the same passions; Are we kindred souls?

Throughout his long and productive career, Monet believed that his art served a particular purpose: to give material form to the expression of his feelings in front of the visual spectacle of nature. What a powerful statement!