Watercolor Artist, February 2012

Highlights
36 Best Watermedia Paintings of the Year
Unexpected Tricks for Texture
6 Steps to More Vibrant Landscapes
Winslow Homer in the Wild

Features
The Year's Best Paintings
By Jessica Canterbury
Go behind the scenes of the year's prizewinning watercolors with the jurors who awarded the works and the artists who painted them.

A Love for Light
By Sarah A. Strickley
Painting directly and quickly, Michael Reardon creates fresh landscapes full of light.

Chaos to Order
By Meredith E. Lewis
From a messy start of spattered paint, random texture and gestural line, Kathleen Conover uses her strong senses of storytelling and design to bring order to her mixed-media paintings.

Simply Put
By Ken Gofton
British artist Lillias August takes a simple approach to painting still life, elevating common objects to sublime novelties worthy of a second look.

True-Hearted Men
By Tamera Lenz Muente
Created near the end of his career, Winslow Homer's watercolors of the Adirondacks tap into Americans' complicated relationship with wilderness.

3rd Annual Watermedia Showcase
By Kelly Kane
The results are in! We reveal the winners of our 3rd Annual Watermedia Showcase competition and ask them to share the secrets to their success.

Columns
Making a Splash
By Jessica Canterbury
A unique exhibition pairs Andrew Wyeth paintings with work by the contemporary watercolor masters he inspired, plus good advice for forging your own creative path.

Creativity Workshop
By Carol Z. Brody
Painting with transparent watercolor doesn't mean you have to give up on texture and pattern. Bring both to your paintings in five simple steps.

Studio Staples
By David Savellano
A veteran plein air painter puts Garza Papel's new handmade watercolor paper through its paces.

Watercolor Essentials
By Carl Purcell
The solution to a problematic design may not be in the objects themselves, but in the spaces around them. Learn how to make the most of your painting's negative shapes.