I was determined to make a plein air kit out of items I already had.

Hi all! My name is Cara and I am excited about joining you all here. I've had the fortunate blessing of being able to retire early and my husband and I have been building our own home the past 2 years. Robert ( my husband) is a Fire Department Captain and we have 3 grown children and are enjoying the empty nest phase of our lives. 😉 In case no one has told you.....raising teenagers is exhausting and hard!! Lol.

Anyway, I am making an accountability post of today's sketches and painting I did. I want to have something to look back on as I progress in the journey of landscape painting. I packed up my backpack and coffee and grabbed a chair. I found a spot by the pond that is located on the 24 acres we live on. We live in the U.S. in northeast Texas and we had a partly cloudy 79 degree day which was glorious! This is the first time I have started an outdoor sketchbook and the first time I have done a landscape painting without following a tutorial!

I have been using watercolors for a couple of months and have only done small simple flower paintings and creative naive paintings. I have fallen in love with watercolor and have set a goal to dedicate this entire year to practicing landscape painting. My daily minimum goal is to sketch something, no matter how small, everyday.

Today I learned that color mixing is something I need to practice and gain confidence in. Let's just say that Naples Yellow was not my friend today...lol. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the process of doing this and being out in nature which I truly love. I opted for a zoomed in perspective of the pond and kept in a few key trees that I knew would be a challenge but was eager to attempt. I am learning to let go of having to get every detail and embrace the "suggestion" of a view. In this, I also realized that I was trying to make the colors match in tone and hue to nature, as to what I was putting on paper! I'm sure you all have been there and are laughing with me at this point. Which I then reminded myself again that I am not a professional.....I am a student and to use the mucky color I had created. 🤣😂

I have to learn what not to do by actually not getting it right. (... sounds like a life lesson from a teenager) This painting will help me remember that. Lol.

I look forward to getting to know you all as we sojourn together!

Blessings,

--Cara

P.S. Just for reference, I use mostly MaimeriBlu watercolors. I have four Winsor & Newton colors. I use mostly Princeton Velvetouch brushes. The couple of rigger brushes I have are by Mimik. I use 100% cotton paper by Baohong (Academy), Fluid100 and New York Central Art Supply paper and I don't use them for any particular reason other than cost at this point.

**Note to @Olly Pyle - Thank you for taking your time with releasing content. You are absolutely right in giving us space to practice and breathe in small doses of your instructions and to enjoy the process and be lifted by nature. You are a gem in your profession and I am grateful for the hard work you are putting in and am looking forward to what is to come.