To paint these tiny sketches really is the best therapy I can imagine… for (almost) everything. I am not so happy with my latest larger paintings (the stony way of learning to paint) – but these effortless sketches always give me back my motivation. I really love it when it works out to suggest an object like a tree with one single brushstroke and the paper-structure shining through the paint. I still have not found a way to transport that look and feel to my larger watercolors – but this is what I dreaming of to achieve.
Diese kleinen Skizzen zu malen ist für mich immer die beste Therapie, die ich mir vorstellen kann…. für (fast) alles. Ich bin in letzter Zeit mal wieder unzufrieden mit meinen großformatigeren Aquarellen (der steinige Weg des Malen-Lernens) – aber diese un-aufwändigen Skizzen bringen mir immer wieder meine Motivation zurück. Ich liebe es, wenn es gelingt, ein Objekt wie z.B. einen Baum mit nur einem Pinselstrich anzudeuten und die durch die Farbe scheinende Papieroberfläche den Rest macht. Ich habe immer noch keinen Weg gefunden, dieses Aussehen und das Gefühl auf meine größeren Aquarelle zu übertragen – aber genau das ist, was ich mir erträume zu erreichen.
brushpark-watercolors 
Sometimes the difference between big and small is very fundamental. Sometimes it’s slightly untranslatable (I think). But the essence of what you love can be shifted and transmuted into the language of the larger work — not exactly, not directly, but by a parallel process of hocus pocus/by osmosis/ through some subliminal, magical means. You will do it!
Maybe you already have and have forgotten! And sometimes! Always sometimes. I mean that not by outside measure but by your own measure you’ll arrive and say, “wow, I did it!” Until that moment (if it hasn’t already happened, cause sometimes one forgets) until then or until the next time enjoy those distinctive qualities you already love about your amazing large works — because larger pictures have their own “je ne sais quoi” and love also the re-connection with the spontaneous special magic of the smaller ones.
Yes, art is really great therapy — isn’t it. I believe that too. How much I just love looking at things. How much I agree. Even just colors alone sometimes lift my mood as I look at them. We are surrounded by beauty daily in life.
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Thanks so much, Aletha! This was really helpful!!! I am really impressed by your wisdom and feel soothed by your empathy.
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