I had one of the best high school art teachers. She was a teacher who truly cared about helping us develop our skills while honoring our creative voice. There weren’t many rules in her classroom as far as art was concerned—we learned a lot by experimentation and getting our hands dirty. However, when she taught us about watercolors there was one rule, never use the tube of white that comes with your paint set. If we needed white, she wanted us to learn to keep our paper white, to use the negative space. I still use my watercolor paint box and that tube of white is still unopened. I am not sure why that rule stuck.
My paintings these days are made with acrylics, watered down to become almost like watercolors so I can layer color upon color. Maybe it is because this technique is similar to watercolor that as I reached for the tube of white I found myself thinking, “oh that wouldn’t be right, we were always told not to use white.”
Funny, this lesson is over twenty years old and yet so perfectly vivid. While I can reach for any color and begin to paint with ease, it actually took some practice to jump into the white. I had to remind myself that there really is no way to make a mistake. I can always apply gesso and begin again.
With this little tube of unused white paint on my desk, it makes me wonder what other little pieces I may be holding onto and how those too affect my life. I am sure over time many more examples will be revealed and with a gentle goodbye, I can let them go.
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