Module 2 · Lesson 1:Materials as Language
Exploring Pigments, Paper, and Technique
(A warm hello and welcome to this next chapter into the Intuitive Watercolor Painting series)
In 2015 I made a deeper commitment to my painting practice. Beforehand I had studied fine art in college as an art minor (my true desire had been to go to art school, but tuition prices and practicality of work after school through the voice of trusted adults won out, and I found myself doing all my other non-art studies in the art department building, pretending I was not only a full time art student but also at a prestigious fine art school… not to worry though as I believe the journey I found myself on was exactly where I needed to be… but I digress a bit…) I had been painting before and after college with oil, acrylics, pastel, printmaking... and while I had touched watercolor here and there, it had always been at the surface, as it was never a medium taught in my classes or one I had considered on my own… I had simple student sets, and a very basic understanding. I knew higher quality materials existed in the watercolor world, but I hadn’t yet let myself into that doorway.
When I recommitted to my practice, something shifted. And a studio came into being. A desire to explore other materials arrived with it. It was in that opening that watercolor found me in a real way. I became romanced by it almost immediately... I was enveloped by the way certain areas could be deeply opaque while others held a luminous translucency that felt impossible and ancient at the same time. You can achieve opacity and translucency in oil and acrylic too, but there was something about working on paper, something about the way water moved pigment across a surface, that resonated with something very old inside me. So, I just started playing.
Slowly I began exploring different papers, different paints. And then I discovered Daniel Smith’s mineral pigments, and something truly blossomed. The frequencies of nature, the energetic qualities of minerals and crystals, combined with color and visual expression... I fell completely in love, as I felt two worlds within me found each other in a way I had been waiting for. From there I found smaller makers on Etsy and Instagram crafting their own watercolors from earth minerals and crystal pigments, each one granulating and settling differently, some deeply opaque, some translucent with a shimmer and sparkle. I began mixing them alongside more traditional watercolor paints and found the dialogue between matte and metallic, between soft layered translucency and that luminous glinting light, endlessly exciting and alive!
All of this is to say... I found that understanding your materials becomes part of your intuitive voice. Often times I will even use my pendulum when choosing which paper or pigments want to be present for a piece. What I’ve seen in meditation, what’s come through in clairvoyance or clairsentience, begins to take form through knowing what each material is capable of saying. I discovered in such a real way that, playing with your materials isn’t a preliminary step before the real work begins. Surprise… It is the work!
What We’re Exploring This Week
We’ve spent the last several weeks exploring and contemplating the many ways to listen with our whole being. In Module 2, we’re going to turn our attention to the actual physical materials that carry our intuition into form!
This might seem like a shift from the spiritual to the practical, but truly, they’re inseparable as we live in a physical world that asks for practical application. This next part is true in all forms and styles of painting, but I have to say, I feel it especially matters when painting abstractly and intuitively. The pigments you choose, the paper you paint on, the way you create edges and space, all of these things, are part of a language your intuition speaks through. This is why learning about the different materials within the watercolor medium I’m sharing this all through, is so important! So that you know what you not only what you have access to in regards to what’s available within watercolor, but also how to translate what wants to come through you via your intuition.
So… we are starting Module two, lesson one, with exploring materials. Not because I want to give you rigid rules to follow, but to share with you the partners in your creative process!
