
What is real and what is paint?
Without underestimating the value of talent, it’s not the most important attribute you need to become a successful artist. It’s not even second. More important than talent is desire. (Harley Brown)
Drawing or painting in the outdoors challenges us to shift gears, absorb what’s in front of us and try to decide what to include and what to omit. One can find many excuses to procrastinate – the weather’s too hot, too cold or too windy. Perhaps there’s no good place to sit, or you’re an insect magnet!

Guayava tree – (Guava)
If you don’t make an effort to start, you’ve forfeited the potential for growth as an artist! There’s a slight chance that your efforts are going to look horrid, and if so, call them exercises and toss them in the trash! There’s a great chance that you’ll be very pleased with the results, and you’ll wonder what took you so long to sharpen that pencil!
A few weeks ago I taped my watercolor paper to a board, gathered my supplies and journeyed into the garden. I sat at ground/eye level with the thunbergia flowers and quickly focused on capturing their likeness in watercolor. Leaf-cutter ants adjusted to my presence and marched around me; black pepper-sized flies feasted on my ankles; the thunbergia vine swayed back and forth in the brisk wind. My eyes protested when the equatorial sunlight flooded the white paper. My paints evaporated on the palette before I could apply them to the paper, so rewetting the pigments seemed redundant.
There were times when I considered abandoning the painting, especially when my eyes tired from studying details in the swaying flowers. I wanted to shout to the wind, “Please STOP!” I ignored that voice of frustration and stuck to my task and reminded myself that it did not have to be scientifically perfect! Every so often I put down my brush and rested not only my eyes but also my back!
I was tempted to stop when I finished the flower study, although my plan was for a more-complicated design. That night I looked through my files and selected a black and red heliconia butterfly, photographed during a visit to the Mindo Butterfly Gardens. A painting’s freshness and spontaneity is often lacking when one works solely from photos.
The following day I returned to the garden and looked at details in the thunbergia vines and foliage. After painting those details, I moved my materials inside and waited until night to add the shadows.
We have this day, this hour, and we have the power to decide what to do with our time. If you have always wished to draw or paint, what’s stopping you?! The odds are that you won’t find a perfect time or perfect place, but if you have the desire to give art a try — GO FOR IT!

Do you like it?
The week has been a unique one; photos and stories – and more stories soon, but here’s a peek:

Why won’t the water reach the house? 250+ meters of flexible hose between the source and the house; where oh where is the break or the block?!
Z
I like that picture very much. Thankyou. Tony
hey from ‘home on the river’!
using a new internet system, no faster and no slower than the old option, i am delighted to be online under my own roof and not using restaurant wifi options!
thank you for all of the wonderful comments you’ve left over the past few months! i’m heading out today for a day of running errands and should be online tonight with a visit to your post top of the list! i look forward to seeing all of the amazing art you’ve created!
z
SUCH a lovely painting!!
Lisa, thank you for your tenacity. We are all the better for it. Beautiful.
Wonderful, a joy to look at.
I give up. Nice message, have to sign in, wrong password, new password, won’t let me in. Sucks! Btw, love your watercolor. Maurading cows, no water, pats garden completely destroyed. Cows visited twice. Mel’s nephew Christian was in charge and failed. LV u
Pura Vida Marie Groff San Miguel, Nandyure Guanacaste, Costa Rica CentralAmerica 506.2655.8062 506.8701.3481 506.8914.3018 marie.groff@gmail.com
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Beautifully done! But with apologies to Mr. Brown, I would think that imagination is the most important attribute for an artist. No?
Gorgeous, z! You build such great compositions around incredible studies!
My post about drawing/painting outdoors this week: http://ruthbaileyart.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/time-out-for-art-the-difference-a-pencil-can-make/
Reblogged this on The ObamaCrat™.
I really like it!! Your post captured my attention from beginning until end! It’s so great to see the process you follow 🙂
You have tenacity and talent….and I am sure they have been applied to the mysterious water problem 🙂
Beautiful painting and some wise words. Inspiring, Lisa.
Amazing you are!
Great advice! You only live once and not forever… Do what you want now 🙂
The painting is beautiful!
Your work of art is just fantastic, Z.
Awesome Lisa! Just loved following along with your process and watching this little beauty unfold – the quiet essence of seeing what’s in front of you and then allowing your imagination find what’s not there. It’s why you are a master of the arts. So happy you are able to post.
Z, I love this – the paintings, the artist’s struggle to continue…Thanks for sharing, BTG
Glad you have the tenacity and perseverance to paint plein air–all of the things you mentioned are nature’s reason I don’t make myself do it!
On my post “Tumbleweed Traveling” there’s a photo of a fellow I found painting en plein air on the Kansas prairie. I was so surprised! He was quite good, too. Even I could see that.
I’ll just add one little demur to the good Mr. Brown’s words. I could desire to be a painter from now until the cows come home (as we say) and it wouldn’t do a bit of good. I could waste years and years being persistent with my drawing, when all along my talent is words. I think perhaps better to say the first step is to identify what we enjoy, what we have some natural skill in. We don’t have to be a Renoir, a Shakespeare – but we all have inclincations, natural bents toward one thing or another. I think that’s the place to start.
Oh – that water problem. Finding a broken pipe is like finding a leak in a boat. You have my sympathy!
Ahhhh…you inspire me with every post. I’ve missed you. I’m in the states for a while, so I’ll be attending my Mom’s painting class with her. I can’t wait to get a paint brush back in my hands. Welcome home!
I do not know if desire is more important than talent, but without it talent would never be expressed. In the order of things it must come first. I must say your watercolor paintings always make me want to buy some watercolor paper and some paint and experiment. Some of the paper I like to do prints on is very similar to watercolor paper and I just love the texture. My mother is a good water colorist even though she prefers to paint on china. Thanks for fun, beautiful and inspiring post.
You are such an inspiring and gifted artist Lisa! This painting is fabulous. 🙂
Lisa, I was just showing this post to my husband and I was studying every inch of the painting. I continue to be in awe (and very jealous). I love this! (No! Really?)
Great post Z, and fabulous painting!
Another wonderful, encouraging post, and I love the composition – your choice to come in tight – it’s beautifully done! Bravo!
Love to visit your post as you are an inspiration.
thanks, jack! i’m home now and should be able to catch up soon. it’s daytime, so the speed is slow. i’ll be back tonight when it’s faster.
too bad we can’t zip to a half-way meeting point between our two countries! you, pauline and i would have a great visit, but we do well via cyberspace!
Pauline is the one she likes to zip around I just keep her company. Because she is also an inspiration.
Me gusta mucho! I love the butterfly, I am glad that you showed us how you did it, I always learn from you posts, for me water colors are new but trying.
Passion and desire motivate us the create something beautiful. As for these Art pieces, yes, like it a lot! Have a wonderful day.
I love it !