莎拉·格雷厄姆 came to us LIVE from the USA on Friday, September 16th to share her favorite techniques and color palette.

Here’s a quick Q&A with Sarah:

為什麼創作藝術？ 
I make art primarily for two purposes – first, because it’s like diet and exercise. It’s just one of those things that I need to be a healthy and whole person, and that fills me up in ways that help me give back to my family and those around me.  Second, because art is a language, and I use this visual language to remind myself of the deeper life lessons I’m learning and to share that wealth with others who also find life from visual languages.

你畫畫多久了？  
I’ve been painting and drawing almost since before I can remember. My mom introduced me to watercolors in grade school, and the rest is history.

你接受過正規的藝術訓練嗎？ 
I don’t have formal training in the watercolor media, but I do have an art degree. I attribute the integrity of my watercolor work to the language and principles of art  that my professors taught me in school.

你是職業藝術家還是業餘愛好者？ 
I am a working artist represented by a local gallery, but I would need to paint with or without a professional label or motivation.

什麼能激勵你？
I am always painting with my eyes – studying shadows and colors and the way their shapes work together to make forms and atmospheres. Right now, I love to study shadows and the concept of nooks of rest and refuge that they create. I also simply find inspiration in the personality of the watercolor medium. It’s wild and un-tameable in many ways like life is, but with the right set of eyes and the willingness to work with it, you can take a hot mess and bring order and life to it. I love that.

你畫畫的時候喜歡聽什麼類型的音樂？
I don’t often listen to music while painting. Since music is another art form and language in and of itself, I can find it distracting.

你有沒有過導師？ 
No, I haven’t ever had a formal mentor, but I had very good counsel from my professors in college that I still refer to, and I love to watch other artists whom I admire, living and historical.

你每天都畫畫嗎？ 
No, not in this season with young children. I paint once or twice a week right now, but I expect to gradually work into more studio time as my family grows into new seasons.

你是一次只畫一幅畫，還是同時畫好幾幅？ 
I never used to work on multiple pieces at once, but I do find myself doing that more often lately because it allows me to make the most efficient use of small blocks of time.

你會先創作概念作品嗎？ 
Sometimes I do. It just depends on how complicated the piece is and if I need to think through my values or have an accurate rendering first. I do a lot of “thinking” in my sketchbooks.

你喜歡在畫室裡作畫還是在戶外寫生？ 
I definitely prefer the studio. It is much more practical for me too, because a lot of my work happens when children are sleeping and I can steal away without leaving the house.

你們使用了多少種核心色？ 
I mostly stick to a couple versions of each primary. Not more than a handful of colors. I find too many colors just confuses me, and you can do just about anything with a few primaries that you know well.

管狀、盤狀還是棒狀？ 
I prefer tubes, but I have a small pan set that I keep in a pencil case with some travel brushes, and I will use that for sketching away from my studio.

How do you know when a piece is finished?
I don’t know if I can give a step by step answer for this one because for me, I just have to feel that it’s right. I try to balance a certain standard I want to achieve with an understanding that not every piece will be a masterpiece and none will be perfect. It is important to be willing to move on to new paintings, because the more I paint, the better painter I become. It’s better for me to continue to paint at a reasonable quality and at the end of the year to have learned enough to be a better painter, than it is to have produced one masterpiece and learned very little.

••••••••••

每週四（太平洋時間下午 2:00），歡迎您在線參與由 Daniel Smith 首席執行官兼所有者 John Cogley 和來自世界各地的特邀藝術家帶來的“近距離對話”。 John 將重點放在我們產品的各項功能並解答您的問題。每週五（太平洋時間上午 10:30），特邀藝術家將分享他們如何將這些功能融入自己的藝術創作中。. 點這裡 下週的 Zoom 會議連結。.

請查看我們的 Facebook頁面 了解即將到來的客座藝術家資訊或觀看往期回放。每次 Zoom 會議都會被錄製並分享到我們的平台上。 YouTube頻道。. La traducción al español está disponible – 選擇西班牙語和 Zoom 的運河。.