Oil Verses Watercolor

This is a spring scene from Laudholm Farm in Wells Maine. I have painted it before in oil.as you can see if you look at another blog from last year. It’s my happy place for sure.  I’ve painted it in oil and now in watercolor.  I love working with both oil and watercolor but now I think I love watercolor a bit more.  The question is why?

Oil has amazing color.  You can layer it and get great depth and variation of color.  It can take you deep into the canvas with the color.  You really are in control of the paint.  I find oil doesn’t have its own personality but bends to your will.  If you put something on the canvas you don’t like you can scape it off.  Not so with watercolor.  When you put watercolor down, that’s it you have to deal with it.

Watercolor has a mind of its own.  It does not have the depth of color you find in oil but it makes up for it in personality.  When I paint with watercolor I find I paint on 2 levels.  One is the subject, an accurate rendering, the other is the flow of the paint.  The watercolor has its own story to tell, one I don’t really control.  To me the out of control aspect is what makes it exciting and challenging.  You are never quite sure what you are going to get.  Most of the time it’s amazing.

I’m not sure what that says about me.  I like to control the out of control.  Sounds like a long therapy session to me.