Watercolor, Divisions 3 and 4

This trimester in Watercolor, students learned, among many other things, the necessity of patience. Painting with watercolor is an accessible process, but to really get the most out of the medium, it takes time and space to learn techniques and best practices. Students spent the first six or seven weeks of the term practicing a broad variety of approaches in order to understand how watercolor behaves. Experimenting with effects, sharing and following tutorials, working with repetition and iteration -- all of these process-oriented activities were essential to developing the skills and understanding that are evident in the students’ later work.

After building a toolkit of techniques, students began the work of drafting and planning a final painting. Working from a photograph, students sketched several views in order to find a strong composition from within the image, and to begin to think about pacing and sequence. Each student approached their work differently, sharing discoveries, offering feedback, and learning from each other. Their dedication to their personal interests, aesthetics, and style has resulted in wonderful diversity within the work from this term.