Tomato...tomata...

A couple of weeks ago I took my first watercolor painting class. It is very relaxing to focus on something that requires my complete attention to get it right. This is therapy at its best.

The first painting we did as a class was of 3 tomatoes. At first I thought this would be an extremely dull project. But the more I worked on it, the more I realized that painting tomatoes is very similar to the last few years of my life.

My first brush stroke was the most difficult because I didn't know what to expect. I tried different amounts of paint and water. Some dabs were beautiful, others just blurred together - or "bloomed", as we artists call it. Getting the shape right was difficult because I couldn't read the paper. It has a mind of its own, and you have to watch it closely, observe the texture and the moisture, to know where to apply more color.

Some of my attempts at shading were disasters. Fortunately, just about everything is fixable, and the paper forgives mistakes if you treat it kindly and respect it for what it is and what it is capable of becoming. There is beauty in everything, even a plain white piece of cotton paper.