卡塔琳娜·阿尔克马克 from Sweden shares her favorite watercolor palette and techniques.

Here’s a quick Q&A with Catarina:

你为什么创作艺术？
I think I have something in me that makes me want to create things. I have done it my whole life. If it is not painting, it can be creating a garden.

你画画多久了？
My whole life. My mother use to say that my best friend and I didn’t play when we were kids, we just drew and painted all day long. As an adult, I didn’t paint for about 10 years because we were busy starting a family and renovating an old house. Since 2016 however, I’ve been more dedicated to becoming a good painter.

你接受过正规的艺术训练吗？
Unfortunately, no. When I finished high school in 1989, I attended an evening art course for beginners with my friend and we learned the basics. Otherwise I’m mostly self-taught. My friends and I used to meet every week to paint. I learned a lot about drawing, mixing colors and how the paint and paper worked together. I’m lucky to live in the same neighborhood as 朱莉·安·卡尔森 和 安德斯·安德森, who’ve introduced me to many other artists and whose weekend courses I’ve attended.

你是职业艺术家还是业余爱好者？
I’m a hobbyist. I work full-time as an intensive care nurse.

Where do you look for inspiration?
I prefer to paint from places I’ve visited. The pictures need to tell a story. Instagram can be a source of beautiful photographs from around the world, if you can’t take your own photos (be sure to ask the photo owner for permission). A new color can also be a source of inspiration.

你画画的时候喜欢听什么类型的音乐？
Lots of soul and other music I listened to when I was young, mostly from the 80’s. Calm and soft or up-tempo songs, it doesn’t matter. I didn’t know how much I needed music while painting before the pandemic. My husband worked from home during those years, and I couldn’t play music because of his team meetings. I’ve also discovered that I probably always sing when I paint. My last painting, The Barber Shop in Rangoon, was painted while listening to Aretha Franklin.

你有没有过导师？
No, but among the painters I admire is Stanislaw Zoladz, a Swedish-Polish artist who can paint water as it really looks. Someday I will try to paint water like he does. I also like Marcos Beccari for his portraits and Iain Stewart for his buildings and street views. When I started to paint nighttime city views, I discovered John Salminen and Laurie Goldstein-Warren.

你每天都画画吗？
Before the pandemic, I painted almost every day. But with my work as an intensive care nurse, the last three years have been really challenging for my coworkers and me. Covid hit Sweden, especially my home region, really hard. During the first months it was a relief coming home to paint, but after a while I didn’t have any energy left to be creative. The second wave hit us harder than the first one did, so it has taken some time for me to heal. I just started to paint again last fall and now I’m able to feel pure joy again.

你是一次只画一幅画，还是同时画好几幅？
I usually paint one at a time, working with reference photos.

你更喜欢在画室里作画还是户外写生？
In my home studio because I paint on full sheets – the way I paint doesn’t fit with plein air.

你们使用了多少种核心颜色？
It depends on what I’m painting. If I paint city nights, I use 歌剧粉红 和 酞菁黄绿 (perfect for neon signs). 钴蓝绿色 for cool lights and 喹吖啶酮金 for warm lamplights. When I’m painting buildings, the PrimaTek colors like 真正的皮埃蒙特石, 塞多纳正品, Tiger’s Eye Genuine, 真品黑碧玺 和 纯正苏打石 are perfect for roofs and facades of buildings.

I used to think that red was a difficult color, so I worked on learning how to paint with it. Now, reds are my favorite colors, particularly 镉红猩红色调 和 玛雅橙. Green is my next difficult color to master, so I think you will see lots of paintings with different greens in the future. When I worked weeks with night shifts, my gift to myself was buying new DANIEL SMITH watercolors. I don’t work night shifts anymore, but I have boxes full of beautiful colors. Lucky me!

管状、盘状还是棒状？
Tubes and pans.

你如何判断你的作品是否完成？
When I’m bored with it. Every painting takes about 40-60 hours to paint, the last hours can be really dull. I place it on my son’s old bed for 3-4 weeks and look at it every day to see if I can find something missing – maybe a shadow or highlight. While I paint, I try to take photos. That’s a good way to see what’s needs fine-tuning.

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每周四（太平洋时间下午 2:00），欢迎您在线参与由 Daniel Smith 首席执行官兼所有者 John Cogley 和来自世界各地的特邀艺术家带来的“近距离对话”。John 将重点介绍我们产品的各项功能并解答您的问题。每周五（太平洋时间上午 10:30），特邀艺术家将分享他们如何将这些功能融入到自己的艺术创作中。. 点击这里查看下周的 Zoom 会议链接。.

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