This weekend, I came across this wonderful blog called Paris Breakfasts, and I was in awe of her watercolors. I even dug up one of my old pieces in the attic, just to make sure that once, I was a painter. I looked at it, touched it, and the slightly rough texture of the coldpress watercolor paper reaffirmed that my painting was in fact real. Then I thought: why was I telling myself that I was a painter. I am a painter. So i hopped into my dad's forest green minivan and drove off to the closest Pearl Paint armed with my Visa card.

A few years ago, I had a nice little tube set of watercolors, which I actually did not even purchase. It was one of the things I decided to keep as a souvenir from my high school, art teacher Mr. Guarino, along with some paintbrushes, charcoal, a set of acrylic paints, jeweller's wax, a sheet of sterling silver... uhh basically, I could start a little studio with those "souvenirs." Anyway, I lent my watercolor set to a friend, and to this day, they have not been returned. The chance that they will be back in my hands is also highly unlikely, considering the last time I asked him about it, he said he lost it and would replace it for me. But I never took him up on the offer. Watercolors are expensive, but since I didn't shell out cash on that old set anyway, it wasn't a total loss.

So I spent about two hours shopping at Pearl looking for the items to equip my watercolor studio, in which one and a half of those hours were spent in the brush aisle deciding between authentic sable or synthetic watercolor brushes.

The damage? A whopping $100.91

• 13x17 watercolor pad
• 12 tube watercolor set
• 5x8 moleskin watercolor notebook
• 1" synthetic flat brush
• sz 10 round synthetic watercolor brush
• 5 set watercolor brush
• paint pallette

Thank God for the 10% student discount. I forgot how expensive brushes were. The flat and the round were two of the most expensive items on this list, the watercolor tubes of course, being the most.

Well I painted, so that my $100 would not go to waste. And here they are: a pair of rotting tomatoes. The second one will be left unfinished. I was just experimenting with different ways to use the brushes and the medium today. I'm a little rusty. I forgot how hard painting was. So much thinking. There's freedom with the brush, but that freedom involves management, especially when it comes to using color. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, considering this is only the beginning of many more paintings. Tomorrow is always another day.

Labels: Artwork, Painting