Control

There are many classes, books, and YouTube tutorials addressing how to control watercolor paint.  On that topic, I have a couple of thoughts.  You can definitely learn how to control watercolors.  And, why would you want to?  The strength (as well as the challenge) of watercolor is that the paint behaves like water; it flows and it runs.  Some surfaces resist it, and other surfaces suck it up like a sponge.  It is subject to the whimsey of the weather.  It dries and disappears, and only the color remains in two dimensions.  Some of the nicest parts of this painting happened because I let watercolor act like itself.  Two different colors were mixed for the tree trunk, and you can see how the pigments started separating themselves on the paper in the moments before the paint dried.  There is a mid ground patch of amorphous foliage that is pink at the top fading downward to green;  I didn't actually paint that lovely transition, I just let color bleed into wet paint.  There are a few areas on the left side - the largest one in green - with efflorescent edges.  I didn't paint those edges; they occurred because I added wet paint to less wet paint.

People often comment that watercolor is difficult.  Probably they are noting that watercolor paint is sometimes difficult to control, and that once you paint something in watercolor, you will not be able to scrape it off or hide it under more paint.  You can't just wipe out your mistakes or changes of heart.  Things will stay pretty much as you painted them.  Yeah.  Life is hard too.  

This was painted at the Pasadena Museum of History, and depicts a building that is not open to visitors.  It is for administration or something.  Pink azaleas were in bloom and I painted them too.