Every person I talk to, as soon as I tell them I paint watercolour, responds “Oh that’s the most difficult medium!” What no-one mentions is that EVERYTHING is difficult at the beginning – learning to drive a manual car, knitting, golf, baking a sponge cake, cryptic crosswords (strike that!! They’re still my enemy!!).
How has this daft idea become so pervasive? It’s been around a long time, probably perpetuated by people who want control and find they can’t. I find the comment to be exceedingly boring and have to stop myself rolling my eyes. I will have to create a witty response that gets them thinking or running! For people like me, we like a little mess, I like watching the paint and water run, I like to watch the colours collide and bleed into each other. I love a little (or big) special nuance borne out of a brush misstep. I love making something out of nothing. I love the lyrical and poetic nature of watercolour. The missing link here is expectations. I expect watercolour to do what watercolour does, what it’s designed to do – run in water! I don’t expect (or want) it to act like oil or acrylic paint. I love the true beauty of watercolour with runs, bleeds and blends. What brought this about was a video “15 mistakes and how to fix them”. There was actually only one true “watercolour mistake” (can’t remember what it was!). The “mistakes” were about fixing compositional problems, the enemy of all artists and not relegated to only painters of watercolour. HAPPY ACCIDENTS – beautiful running and bleeding of colour – NO PAINTING OUTSIDE THE LINES!! OMG!! WHAT A DRAG!! 15 mistakes and how to fix them tells us that virtually every time our brush hits the paper, we’re making a mistake! We start looking at everything as if it were wrong, it sets us up to feel anxious and fearful. Imagine feeling frightened at every step? Every brush stroke? Lets remember there are no mistakes in watercolour – just a few surprises along the way! I say “Bring back the happy accident!” What is missing for many of you is the fun and discovery of NO CONTROL! Learn to watch the pigments and water react with each other, set aside time, your warm-up maybe, to play with the paint and discover the amazing effects you can get! I’m going to repeat myself: BRING BACK THE HAPPY ACCIDENT!! Lets not focus on fixing what’s not broken. Start looking for the beautifulness in your paintings. Let the water carry the paint where it wants to go – use lots of water and when it’s summer, use more! You all know this – stop touching and overworking – the fewer brushmarks the better. If you can’t stop fiddling – ask yourself “what does my painting need?” Put your brush down, hands behind your back – get some thinking time. The best next skill to develop is to learn how to use or ignore “wrong marks” as the creative foundation of your paintings. All members welcome to the Happy Accident Club!! 
3 Comments
 One of my students who attended art school many years ago was taught that working in a series is a "cheat" for artists. I disagree. A series, or a body of work, is important to artists - we create a body of research and reference, it does NOT make sense to use this for only one piece of work - unless your price is $1m!! Think of all the time and effort gathering all this information - could I add the hourly rate for all this time to the price of one painting? questionable. a scientist specialises in a particular field of research, a lawyers and doctors practice in their specialist field. They are continually referring back to their previous research and work and developing it - making it more and more relevant. And this is exactly the same process for artists. It is a pragmatic decision to work in series, your brain starts working in a certain way, and, even though you may have painted several, you’ll start to discover new ways to develop your subject, new ideas, different light, different angles, palette/season, mood etc. For example, I started my Glamping series some years ago, most years I revisit and create 5-6 new paintings that can be quite different from previous years. They obviously have the same source but each year they’re a little more developed, style wise and concept. Sometimes it’s a safe haven or confidence booster when you’ve had some success to work on a familiar series. I admire artists who paint only one subject – my friend Mo paints amazing clouds and cloudy skies, Shirley paints beach scenes and another (his name escapes me) paints WWII aircraft. To have a passion for a subject as deep as this is truly incredible. I, however, need more variety, I work on 2-3 series, adding a new subject/concept from time to time, some of which become series and some not. Some subjects may not work for you immediately they may need more development and/or skill, don't give up, good things take time. Whether you succeed or not at every new subject is irrelevant. What is more important is the effort to try and improve; the study of each subject helps you to get better in preparation for the next. what's your thoughts?   Custard Square Bookshop, Christchurch, New Zealand
Jude asked:
Do you always plan out everything ie... colours for everything and where bikes, cones etc might go? Yes I do plan everything out BUT as I'm a little haphazard (read Arty-Farty - aka rip sh*t and bust!) I'm also happy to let go and see where the "unplan" takes me. So sometimes my painting is not like my sketch (sometimes my sketches are not like the scene!!). You know that I pretty much always map out my design in a thumbnail sketch first. This sketch is about studying the pattern of the light and the dark and working out a composition. It's not about detail. I'm working out how I can use them to move the viewers eye around the painting. this sketch also helps me to learn about the scene/subject, it helps me to discover areas that could become a problem, or elements that I can take advantage of eg interlocking and overlapping shapes. I make a "shopping list" of elements in the scene that I may or may not want to add into my painting and choose the ones that I like or help me to tell my story. Once I've drawn my map onto my watercolour paper, I sometimes find there are areas that could be utilised or need a little filling up, these ideas come from my shopping list. with regard to palette selection, I'm often smitten with a particular palette for a year or two and then replace a pigment or two. I usually use the same foundation palette for my realism work, based on transparent primary pigments, just the three plus burnt sienna, the same three I recommend to beginners. These colours will mix into every colour you could possibly need - just as well if you're in lockdown and no art supply store!! Divertiti tutti!! 
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Poetry in watercolour is made in the freedom of the here and now. Amanda Brett Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working - Pablo Picasso 
There are no mistakes in watercolour, just some extra surprises!! Categories
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What my readers and viewers have to say
Your emails are so informative! I must confess I've watched a couple of your demos from beginning to end, and it makes me want to watercolor!!! I've only ever painted with oil or acrylics and haven't know how to begin with WC. Your content is excellent!
Susan VN Hi Amanda
Thank you for your tips. They inspired me to practise and I realised I haven’t been loading the brush properly. I learnt about adding more paint, and not water, to washes. In today’s tips I like the idea of painting with purpose. Your tips are very helpful. I very much appreciate receiving them. Elizabeth Hi Amanda I enjoyed your post and generous tips. Looked up Dan Burt I begin to see that you can colour any subject to give it pizazz so long as the tone and form is correct Certainly adding value now to my attempts Thanks heaps Annie
Yes very wise words. Agree with not fussing and agree with comments about good quality paint. Well written and inspirational as always. Cheers Janet xxxx Archives
May 2025
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