Is there an artist in the house?

The other day my Tuesday painting ladies were over when Kelly and her grandkids Luke and Hailey stopped by. Since Luke is only 1 yo we did not invite him to paint with us (yet). However, Hailey (4yo) gladly accepted and joined us at the table. “I am going to give you the good stuff,” I told her as I cut her a piece of 140 lb cold press, handed her a pallette of Winsor Newton watercolors and gave her a good brush.

As you can see we got a master piece which I matted, framed and hung in my gallery!!! The photo really doesn’t even give it justice.

I am a firm believer in giving children… even young children good quality materials for painting. The success rate in so superior. Another thing I always do is only give them translucent paint. Opaque colors tend to muddy things up and make a mess. However, as you can see from Hailey’s painting, even though she mixed her colors together they stayed clear and vibrant.

If there is a watercolor artist growing in your home these are the paints and papers recommend:

www.cheapjoes.com has pretty good prices.

3 Primary colors of Artist quality watercolor paint in the tubes. If you can swing it at all get Winsor Newton… If you have to get cheap at least get Grumbacher Academy… NOT Cotman.

Blue- Prussian

Red- Rose Madder

Yellow- Winsor Yellow

If your artist loves pink and purple they will appreciate it if you add a tube of Quinacridone Magenta

If you want to be able to make greys Prussian and Burnt Sienna make a really nice one.

Buy one of those small round white plastic or metal watercolor trays (the 7 hole ones fit perfect in a sandwich bag). Put a blob of each color of paint in a hole and let it dry solid. You now have artist grade equality watercolor pans that easily mix to make lots of colors.

Here are just some of the great colors you can get from Prussian, Rose Madder and Winsor Yellow ( I also used the Burnt Sienna to get the grey at the top)

Let me know when you have your supplies and maybe I will give a quick and successful beginner lesson. Oh… and be sure and get 140 lb cold press paper I would never hand anyone less. You will be amazed at the difference it will make.

Sue

PS I love the signature on Hailey’s painting! I told her to sign it and she said ” I can’t write my name.” I told her to just make squiggly lines… Later, when Kelly was working on her with handwriting she said, ” I want to make squiggly lines like SueSue showed me.” Oops! Not to worry Granny got her straighted out on that one, she only gets to sign with squiggly lines on her artwork.