picasso

(posted 08/19/2026)

I majored in art at a small private college, but looking back, I feel my education was lacking in one important way. Art history was, of course, part of the required coursework, but there was very little emphasis on technique. I remember learning why a particular painting was revered in its time, or what made it unique or controversial, but not much about how the artist actually made it. How did they compose the painting? How did they choose their colors? What decisions went into creating it?

I’ve always been drawn to self-education. I know it has its limitations, and I’m perfectly comfortable with that. I still love figuring things out for myself.

Maybe that comes from growing up in an old farmhouse where I spent hours reading anything I could find. There was no teacher there to guide me through all the things I wanted to learn, so I mostly had to figure them out on my own. I was the youngest of three children and the only girl. My dad died when I was two, and a few years later my mother was diagnosed with mental illness. I spent a lot of time trying to teach myself things, and just as often ended up frustrated when I couldn’t figure something out or didn’t have the right tools or supplies.

My mom did teach me to crochet, and later my cousin taught me to cross-stitch after she learned. I immediately started crocheting Barbie clothes and designing my own cross-stitch patterns. At one point, I cut up a pillowcase to use as fabric for one of my creations. I got into trouble for that, of course.

I also watched a lot of PBS as a young child. Many of the programs I gravitated toward were cooking shows, and cooking became another creative outlet. There was always food available to experiment with, and I loved the idea that I could take a handful of ingredients and make something. So you can imagine my disappointment when our school district eventually dropped the shop and home economics classes I had been looking forward to taking someday. Those were exactly the kinds of classes I craved.

Not that long ago, I decided to learn watercolor painting. That instinct to figure things out for myself has never really gone away. Lately, I’ve decided to turn that curiosity toward some of art history’s greatest masters. I’ve been doing what are commonly called master studies – choosing a painting by an accomplished artist and attempting to recreate it, not simply as a copy, but as a way of understanding the decisions behind the work. I tried a few YouTube tutorials on watercolor, and while they were helpful, I’ve learned more from these two master studies than I ever expected.

There is something very different about slowing down and trying to reconstruct another artist’s decisions. Instead of simply looking at a painting and thinking, I like that, I have to ask myself: Why did they put that shape there? How did they get that color? Where did they place the light? How did they create that sense of depth? What did they leave out? I feel like I am literally in their shoes.

It turns out that studying the masters this way is teaching me exactly what I felt was missing from my formal education – not just what makes a painting successful, but how an artist gets there. Of course I have to add my own spin, so I have been doing watercolor interpretations of some famous oil paintings. That’s why I stated these are “sort of” master studies.

And, after decades of figuring things out on my own, I’m discovering that sometimes the best way to learn is to call on the masters show you the way.

Here are process photos from my study of Picasso’s “Fleurs” (1901).

Next, I’m working on a study of a small bouquet by Manet. I post process photos on Instagram/Facebook a couple times per week if you want to follow along.