Merrimack River Painters

"It's Just a Sketch"

By Jan Wittmer

Painting the landscape is a way for me to express visually and share a moment in nature that affected me. The process of painting that moment, is an intimate and personal event, that often takes me to "another place".

For several years I have been working in oils, a mighty challenge, one that I have tackled wholeheartedly. Recently upon reflecting on my commitment to oil painting, I realized I was trying too hard. 

I love the rich color

of oils, and the lushness

of thick paint...
But I have to work more
deliberately to move the
paint around. 

 When I started using watercolors to make small studies in a sketchbook, with pencil and watercolor (which I had never really used), I discovered a looseness, an opportunity to explore and a spontaneity that seems to come with the medium.

And so what if
            you make a mistake....        

"It's only A sketch"
                       

                              
                                                                                                
                                                  

Realizing how liberating this was for me, my fellow artists encouraged me to go bigger. I not only went bigger, but began exploring textures and techniques.

                                                    

   

        

 In time I will open my

oil box again and

may have a different
approach

after working with

watercolors.

Who knows where watercolor will take me, but I am having fun

exploring and finding it easier to get lost with this

medium that invites beautiful mistakes.