Water color class

my work table today

For the longest time I have been wanting to water color. Especially botanicals. I imagined it as the perfect way to meld together my admiration for all things flora with some way of studying and enjoying. And, if you have read my Rio post, you know that I am fascinated by botanical drawing. This past summer I vowed to my family that I was going to try my hand at botanical drawing. I signed up for a class in water color drawing at Cleveland Botanical Gardens, despite the fact that it overlaps with after school pick-up and snack time, which I usually hold sacrosanct.  Last week classes began.

I learned in class today that traditional botanical drawing is really a scientific art from, with some very strict rules. It must be exact, taken from life and not photographs, include either entire specimen or detail from specimen, often includes the roots... If you think about it, before cameras, botanical illustration was the only way for naturalist to depict, catalog and classify their finds.

Let me quickly assert that this is nothing like what I am trying to do! I just want to take time to think about what I see. To search for the right color, try to recreate the forms before my eyes. There is something about it that I find very satisfying!

So above are my first and second week water colors.  I noticed when I left the class this afternoon that I was really, really happy.