Watercolor - Becoming a Painter

Being a painter of watercolors began as a fun thing to try my hand at and later became a substitute for taking anti-depressant drugs. It wasn't that I had never painted before, it was that I'd never been a care-giver for the elderly before. I'd been dabbling in a bit of drawing and making an attempt to paint for a little less than a year when I had taken on caring for two very old in-laws, both capable of driving any sane human to want to take extreme measures. I needed a good reason to run away from home for a few hours whenever the opportunity came my way and painting was my salvation. At the time I believed I would have my own life back within, at most, a year. It would be six years (1994-2000) and many workshops and paintings later before I ended up on Wellbutrin anyway. Just to give you an idea, one of the visiting nurses commented that she'd been doing her job for over 30 years and that Auntie was the worse patient she'd ever had to deal with and my father-in-law wasn't a charmer either. So I am convinced that rediscovering my artistic side, along with taking meds, kept me from running into the woods howling like a banshee.

At first I just drove 30 miles to Montpelier, the capital of VT btw, to pick up some very basic watercolor tools/elements/necessities and have a look see at what was available up here in the boonies. I purchased a few tubes of paint, a couple of cheap brushes, a portable easel, and some paper. I dug out my old sketch books and pencils and dug in. Then I got some good books and just followed the directions. Wasted a fair amount of paper and paint in the process but it is a good thing to get used to if you want to take a stab at watercolor painting. A good place to look for supplies on the net is www.cheapjoes.com