Blue Dragon Card, 1997 (Detail)

While sorting through a bunch of boxes I came across some old paintings. I have to admit that I don’t paint, or even sketch as much as I should. In the last few years painting and drawing has been mostly restricted to whatever project (read: paying work) that I happen to be doing at the time. And when it’s not illustration work, it’s design work on the computer, a medium about as far removed from the wonderful frustrating idiosyncrasies of watercolour as one can possibly get.

I’ve got a love/hate relationship with watercolour. I love how it looks in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing. I love the potential of it. I hate the crushing disappointment that comes when my initial inspiration ends up in horrible, muddy failure or worse, tight, overwrought lifelessness.

In the past, I went through periods of time where I would pick up enough courage to tackle watercolour unprovoked and uncomissioned. I’d usually end up disappointed with the result and file the attempts away in a drawer.

There’s a lot to be said for revisiting a piece much later, after the initial inspiration has passed. The perception of it ends up more technical and less emotional.

A few years later, these rude attempts don’t look as horrible as I initially thought. They’re still far from masterful, but each one has a passage or two in it that hints at the possibility of future competence with a bit more practice.

View of Ragitoto Island from Mission Bay Beach, New Zealand, 1998 (Detail)

View of Ragitoto Island from Mission Bay Beach, New Zealand, 1998

Taranaki Sheep, New Zealand, 1998

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