Wednesday, July 14, 2021 Watercolor Lesson 16 – Toscana

Toscana is what we call Tuscany, a region in central Italy, and this week’s painting is from a photograph taken in that region.

And here is the artists’ painting from that photograph:

Already, I like the way they have lightened it up and made the colors more vivid. I had some trouble the first time around understanding which were the olive trees, but after some thought, decided they must be the stand of largish-looking bushes in the foreground on the left. Here’s how my two attempts turned out:

I’m not going to tell you all the stuff I don’t like about these because that will draw your attention to those features. Best to let you experience it without my overly critical eye casting a pall over it.

Here’s a question I was pondering today: What makes someone an “artist?” If anyone asked me if I’m an artist, I would not give a straightforward “yes,” but I’m not sure why. It seems like there should be more involved in claiming that title than merely doing artwork, but I also don’t think it means necessarily that an artist is one who gets paid for their work. I just checked in with Professor Google and this is what he says: “Artist: a person who practices or is skilled in an art, especially painting, drawing or sculpture; a person who displays in his work qualities required in art, such as sensibility and imagination.” Well, I’m not sure about that last part, but there you have it.

I’ll probably delete this with artistic flourish in the morning.