Growth and Connection were keys word to sum up the experience of 16 artists, my assistant Beverly Benda, and myself who gathered daily at NDSCS in Fargo, North Dakota, for the Beginning Drawing and Watercolor Workshop. This amazing and talented group shared their individual personalities and styles as they continued on their own creative journeys in the world of watercolor. Some of the artists were taking the workshop for a second time, which I found to be instrumental in their confidence level and exponential growth throughout the week. After several hours learning the foundations of drawing, the artists were comfortable in making small pencil sketches to determine focal point, light source, and emphasis. The greyscale paintings came next and then the color studies. We work small to large to develop confidence with the brush and understand the properties of watercolor better. There is always the questions: How much paint? How much water? How fast can I paint? Do I paint wet on wet or wet on dry? I tell my students to give themselves a year to be comfortable with the properties of watercolor and they will answer those questions themselves with daily practice. (Yes, daily practice, even for 10 minutes!). The beauty of this workshop was the value and generosity of each artist who gave freely, shared freely, and worked hard to do many exercises, ask questions, and immerse themselves energetically into the challenge and joy of painting. All artists who take my workshops are welcome to join my closed Facebook page: Barbara Benda Nagle Drawing and Watercolor Group, so they may share their work after the workshop and receive affirmation and suggestions for improvement from all the other artists who have gone through the same coursework. We will remain connected for a long time. I thank all of these artists for a fabulous week! Now, get out some paint and paper and practice your pencil sketches, your color mixing, your graded washes…sketch, paint, practice daily and enjoy the journey. Remember it doesn’t matter where you are on the journey; what matters most is that you are on the journey!- Happy painting! – Barbara
