Watercolor Insights about Quiet and Love

If you want to learn about letting go of control and letting things flow, 

take up watercolor painting. 

There is something magical about watching the water swirl into something you could never have controlled. You begin with an idea and want to paint a particular image but you soon learn that holding less tight to the outcome brings you closer to the intention. And strangely enough you find yourself painting exactly what you need to see.

 

It began for me with a little Instagram challenge. One of those that has a prompt for each day. With an abundance  of my girl's art supplies, I decided I wanted to give it a go. It something for myself in those sparse quiet moments of distance-learning in our home, a few moments here and there to splash some paint on paper guided by the prompt.

 

As is usual for me and especially now in the midst of a pandemic, I sought out books from the library to "teach" me how to watercolor. If a class couldn't do it then why did I think books would? That is my inclination - to read about it rather than doing it. Yet what I needed was more about the what rather than the how. And here, Pinterest taught me more about what I wanted to paint.

My process emerged: Scroll through Pinterest until I found an example of what I thought I could paint, save a couple of images, then sit down with my watercolors.

If you want the moon,

do not hide from

the night.

If you want a rose,

do not run from 

the thorns.

If you want love,

do not hide from

yourself.

~Rumi

 

 

When did these watercolors become less about filling some time and more about the thing I look forward to everyday? I suspect it was when I stopped trying to just fill the time and started trying to fill myself.

 

 

 

After my little painting was complete, I searched for poems and quotes that aligned with my thoughts for the day. These poems reflected some part inside of me that was yearning for understanding, yearning for love and to be loved. While my love for these little paintings grew, so did my love for these things I did. It is this new habit that brought me closer to myself. 

 

Am I yearning for that carefree time last summer when I took an art class with my bestie then headed out for a leisurely lunch. Yes, of course. But this introspective aspect of watercolor feels just as fulfilling. It satisfies a desire to do something new everyday which is a desire well nurtured in this century of doing and doing all day, everyday, all week, every week, all year, every year.

 

The pandemic has forced us all to slow down, to go inward, to stay in. 

 

This is where I found a quiet that is nurturing, a quiet I want to nurture and a love for myself.