Watercolor Is for Everyone: Simple Lessons to Make Your Creative Practice a Daily Habit

Kateri Ewing

Quarry Books (AUG 18) Softcover $22.99 (128pp) 978-1-63159-859-3

Kateri Ewing’s Watercolor Is for Everyone encourages an intuitive, meditative practice to inspire original creations.

Based on a workshop to encourage anyone to try their hand at watercolor, this step-by-step, lesson-filled book’s creative methods require practice every day for twenty-one days to build artistic skills. At the center of its daily habits is a message: stop worrying about what the final product will look like; practice is the key.

The book’s lessons are preceded by instructions and guidance on which tools to purchase and why. Most lessons include a section on which tools to gather, instructions for creating art, and guided pictures of what that looks like, with at least one finished example. Student artwork is often incorporated, too, while a reference section helps with furthering knowledge.

The book’s can-do attitude incorporates trial-and-error methods and encourages not being afraid of messing up; Ewing remarks that “it usually takes three tries to really learn something.” Ewing recommends finishing the twenty-one day practice and starting over again, letting the practice take on a life of its own that never ends. The purposes of some practices, like sending gratitude to the water that’s used in the art, are underexplained, though, and at times it seems that the lessons focus more on intuitive practice and mindfulness than on nurturing the skills required to paint.

Passion for watercolor, and the sense that everyone should try it, pours off of the page. Accompanying photos of paints, brushes, and finished works add to the book’s sense of inspiration. Watercolor Is for Everyone is about developing an intuitive artistic practice; its lessons inspire the creativity necessary to keep creation going, day in and day out.