Friday, March 4, 2011

Start at the Beginning

Back in the 1970s I took my first watercolor class. The instructor was Roger Middleswart (1916-1994), a truly excellent teacher for beginners. Watercolor is a technique-intensive medium. It can be very frustrating for a beginning painter. But Roger began with the basics, and each class built on the previous one and demonstrated increasingly complex subjects. For the first seven weeks we dutifully copied his paintings. At the eighth class we were free to paint our own subject. 

I painted "Forest Meditation." 

It was the first painting I ever did that I really felt proud of, the first that came out just the way I envisioned it. So here it is for the world to see.
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4 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 27, 2011 at 7:42 AM

    Forest Meditation is beautiful! Trees are my favorite. They provide their service while remaining in one place and I find their music is poetically enchanting. Great first piece. I'll buy a print.

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  2. NitaMarch 27, 2011 at 9:22 AM

    Way to go, Susan! I’m glad to hear you’re still painting watercolors. I remember waaaaay back when you made the big decision to go to Sinclair to study art. I thought that was incredibly brave, since you were giving up a good job to follow your dream.

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  3. Rachel MurphreeApril 1, 2011 at 10:05 PM

    Susan, this is really just a lovely beautifully composed, dimensional peaceful painting. Defintiely something to be proud of!

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  4. Marty HooberFebruary 21, 2015 at 5:20 PM

    Susan...all of your pictures are very nice. I found your entries or well my wife did. ....we have some pictures. ..6 of them. ..that my parents left behind when they died. Roger did them, 6, season paintings. ...one of fall, one winter, 2 each of spring and summer. They were professionally framed by Lancasters frame shop in Wilmington, N.C. his signature on paintings is dated 1973.....should be about the time he taught you huh? I'll see about putting picture of the pictures on here for you. ....p.s. thanks for having your great work up on here.

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