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What skills do you think were most essential?
Before a skill can be fully developed, there must be interest. So the first question might be, “am I interested in watercolor as means of expression in art-making? It’s essential to start with your interest, in this case, painting with watercolor, so that you’ll be less likely to quit when the thing you are learning feels hard. Because learning something new is challenging (whether you are interested in it or not), an interest followed leads to an aptitude developed. Aptitude (or talent) developed builds to competency, and competency boosts self-confidence.

Halfmoon Bay, New Zealand 2019 Piha, North Island, New Zealand 2019 Vienna, Austria 2019  

I wrote this book - Watercolor Technique and Color Theory Essentials - to fast-track your understanding of watercolor and its unique qualities. 

I set a new goal [in 2008] of learning to paint with watercolor. As soon as I told myself I would do this, my next thought was, "But you're too old - 45 years too old." You've missed your chance, and you have no formal training". This was followed by an absolute miracle of a thought "wait a minute – the next five years will pass whether you do this or not. Why not find out what's possible?" 

A morning monologue about waiting for the right moment to make our work and a little about the color red. The conditions for making a painting are never perfect. If they had to be, the work would never get done....

The thing – your art – is living inside you, and it’s demanding something from you. It wants to be seen or heard or acknowledged in some way. It’s pushing from the inside out. And there’s this internal wrestling match...

Today we hosted a workshop by Tasha Sprovtsoff with the goal of using her Gelli print process to create a ground for watercolor painting. I made this print with a layer of Golden’s transparent watercolor ground, Daniel Smith’s Cadmium red,...

Jana L Bussanich teaches watercolor technique and color theory in Colorado Springs, CO I’m finishing up coursework offered by artist and painter Nicholas Wilton, founder of the Art2Life and Creative Visionary Programs. We painted in acrylics during the course, which...

Do you ever feel like your art is asking to be more, but you’re not sure what “more” could mean? Well, my work has been in transition this year, and this piece, Lifted, marks a new direction for me in...

JANA L BUSSANICH ARTIST – Studio Notes October 20, 2019 It was around 2008-2009 when I first began to self-identify as an artist. I was talking about myself as an artist sort of secretly. There would be those first moments...