Watercolor Conversations with Cara Brown

The stillness at the heart of every painting

Send us Fan Mail This is an accidental episode that came out of a conversation with my Claude.ai, of all things.  It used a word that sent me into my archive to an episo

The gift in our unlived life

Send us Fan Mail A tender episode about how we can look at big disappointments in life in a way that both allows our grief and loss - and mines the power in them - to li

Destruction before creation

Send us Fan Mail Ten years ago I pulled an oracle card that gave me this edgy message - "destruction before creation."  At first I recoiled from it - no, not this one! 

You in your art

Send us Fan Mail Underneath the color, the water, the light, the composition — woven through it all— is ingredient we haven't expressly talked about.  You. No matt

Composition - Putting it all together - again

Send us Fan Mail Composition!  It's a step back to consider what goes in and what doesn't, what variety to include, how elements relate to each other - and the

Taking another look at color

Send us Fan Mail We started this series with color. Now, with several episodes of painting experience behind us, we come back to it — and it looks different from here.

Lost and found in the details - coping with overwhelm when painting

Send us Fan Mail My antidote for overwhelm.  If when faced with a complicated section of a painting, you've thought:  how on earth am I going to paint this? — this

3D in a 2D world - making your subjects pop

Send us Fan Mail This episode is one half of the Making it Real  workshops from Watercolor Basics and Beyond. Creating volume — when it seems like you could reach out an

Embracing the blur - painting a fuzzy background

Send us Fan Mail Besides "the light,"  a characteristic of my paintings are my out-of-focus backgrounds.  I'm asked often how to make this happen.  I this episode I

Painting the effects of light

Send us Fan Mail The illusion of light in our paintings is a magical thing.  Using just contrast between dark and light  - and the subtleties of relative shades between,

A new series of episodes - a walk through my teaching!

Send us Fan Mail I made something for you!  My first intentional series of Watercolor Conversation episodes.  They are a visit to the ideas and information I share in my

Getting intimate with color

Send us Fan Mail We begin with color — not as a set of rules, but as a relationship.  I don't teach color theory, I teach color practice.  I can think of  no better

It's still ALL about the water!

Send us Fan Mail This is the second episode in this series - all about the water.  Watercolor isn't watercolor without water — and yet it's the water that trip

Shape Shade Color - Giving your inner critic a job

Send us Fan Mail In this next stop we head inside - our brains and our perception.  Our brains are brilliant shortcut machines — and when we're painting, that can g

Mameen - A poem that calls us forth

Send us Fan Mail I take a bit of a departure in this episode.  I share my thoughts about a poem called "Mameen" by David Whyte.  When I first read it, this poem reflecte

What comes of a promise and putting myself in learning mode

Send us Fan Mail I share the outcome of this past summer's 92 Days of Watercolor and a project I embarked upon to paint more loosely.  I was inspired by a long-ago

Left and Right Brain - who's in charge?

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I share how I find continued value in the way Iain McGilchrist's book The Master and His Emissary reframed my understanding of our

Blessings to bolster the courage to make YOUR art

Send us Fan Mail In this - a little bit longer episode - I share the story behind writing my interpretation of The Beatitudes - eight ancient teachings -  for those of u

Today is Easter Saturday - Republished

Send us Fan Mail Doing all this myself, this was bound to happen.  A big silent space ended up right in the middle.  It's now fixed.   I'm sharing this one ag

Composition - putting it together

Send us Fan Mail Here's an art-making-oriented episode - a practical one. I'm sharing my thoughts on how it is that I decide the form of my paintings - my proc