These were painted part of my class homework for the NAFA Watercolour homework pieces. They were hard. Really hard – I threw away a number of practice pieces before getting to this and yet I still didn’t like what I did.

I want a higher level of realism which my art teacher has pointed out a few times that realism is not the point of watercolour paintings.

I have been mulling through this on and off: what is the realism that I am chasing after. Is it a copy of the picture?

When I was learning music, my music teacher gave me recording of a piece as reference. When I returned the following week and played it, she commented that I was able to produce a facsimile of her playing. I remembered that she said I was to express the musical feeling of the piece and not to copy her playing.

My artistic ability is shallow and all I can do at the moment is to try to match the picture. I don’t know what I should do if I am not suppose to copy the picture.

Funny – I felt pleased enough about the pear to state it on my blog and it now looks childish. For these, the only good thing I can say about them is that I have made some progress and I can pass up homework.