A Lesson In Watercolor "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way- I had no words for." -Georgia O'Keeffe.

Although watercolor painting is extremely old, dating perhaps to the cave paintings of Paleolithic Europe, and has been used for manuscript illumination since at least Egyptian times but especially in the European Middle Ages, its continuous history as an art medium begins in the Renaissance. History:

The German Northern Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) who painted several fine botanical, wildlife and landscape watercolors, is generally considered among the earliest exponents of the medium. An important school of watercolor painting in Germany was led by Hans Bol (1534–1593) as part of the Dürer Renaissance. Famous Watercolor Artists:

Famous Artist Continued: John James Audubon: John’s name has become synonymous with environmental conservation and natural history. Although he was not a trained naturalist, Audubon's love of birds drove his art. He chose as his task to document all the birds and animals in America but did not discover any new species. The engravings of his watercolors of wildlife were "a landmark in nineteenth-century natural history

Famous Artists Continued.. Georgia O’Keeffe: She became one of the first American modernists, the first woman to gain recognition for that style, and a signature painter of Southwest landscape and structures.

Techniques: Dry on Wet: Refers to painting on top of dry paint. Wet on Wet: Refers to painting wet paint on top of wet paint

Painting a Wash A wash is useful for providing a background or for covering a large area. It can either be done in one tone, known as an even, smooth, or flat wash; or gradually getting lighter, known as a graded wash.

Graded Wash A graded wash, where the color lightens towards the bottom of the page, is made in the same way as an even wash except that instead of loading your brush with more paint for each subsequent stroke, you load your brush with clean water thereby diluting the wash.

Salt When you scatter salt onto wet watercolor paint, the salt absorbs the water in the paint, pulling the paint across the paper into abstract patterns. Use coarse salt, not fine salt, as the bigger the piece of salt the more it will absorb. When the paint is dry, gently rub off the salt.

Dry Brush Dry brush is the almost the opposite watercolor technique to wet in wet. Here a brush loaded with pigment (and not too much water) is dragged over completely dry paper. The marks produced by this technique are very crisp and hard edged. They will tend to come forward in your painting and so are best applied around the center of interest

Bands of Color single strokes of color laid down side by side in whatever pattern your first stroke takes. The object is to concentrate on the white line you are forming between each stroke. Try not to touch any previous strokes, keep the white lines of unpainted paper unbroken.

Wrist Flick A quick, easy stroke, simply stated, a flick of your wrist. This creates blades of grass, or trees.