I ran across this quote today on www.handprint.com, which speaks to my experience learning how to paint in watercolor.  It’s a medium not often taught in art school.  You can find good, wonderful teachers and classes in some of the most unlikely places, but in my many years in art schools (3 universities), there was no formal instruction in watercolor.  It’s one of the most challenging mediums to paint.  Georgia O’Keeffe says it all.

Georgia O’Keeffe began to paint in transparent watercolors in 1916. Though she had used gouache in her work as a commercial illustrator, she described her first experiences with transparent watercolor this way:

“After about ten attempts — I certainly had to laugh at myself — It’s like feeling around in the dark — thought I knew what I was going to try to do, but find I don’t — guess I’ll only find out by slaving away at it.”