Watercolor - Think Simple

In a past issue of Watercolor Artist, there's an excellent, and comprehensive, article by Charles Reid on how to stop overworking your watercolor paintings. He provides four valuable tips to achieve this goal:

• Once you start losing your concentration, stop.
• Don't go back and make forms more defined.
• Don't add small darks at the end of the painting.
• When you make a stroke that's "off," stop.

I think I'm going to keep his tips by my side when I do my next watercolor painting.

Reid also suggests that you study the watercolor paintings of John Singer Sargent. If you visit Reid's site, you'll find that he keeps it beautifully simple in his paintings. I especially admire his Venice paintings.

Here is a painting by John Singer Sargent, entitled Gondoliers' Siesta (1910). (Note: I just realized that I'm continuing to follow Michelle Ward's Challenge: To Learn Something New. And that's a good thing.)