Valerie Chua’s Watercolor Class

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Our still-life painting exercise. I tend to overwork and the messy parts are proof to that. Nevertheless, I would never have been able to paint this without Valerie’s class. 🙂

Influenced by the growing art community here in the Philippines, particularly in Manila, I took several workshops this year on calligraphy and watercolor. My best experience to date is my 6-session watercolor class under Valerie Chua (She’s @valeriechuaart on Instagram).  It’s sad that my batch will have our last two sessions with her next week but I’m so happy that I feel I have a better relationship with watercolor now.

One of the most important lessons I learned from the class is to “not be OC or obsessive-compulsive” (OC in its colloquial use which simply means being a control freak). I still need to let the water do its own work and retouch less (I have a tendency to overwork my creation! Sorry, paper for ruining you on many occasions!) but I’m grateful for the progress that I’m seeing. I’m no Van Gogh hahaha but I can say a lot of my questions about the medium have been answered and my discomfort with it has been addressed. I hope to acquire Caro’s control of water and brush soon! 🙂 (Note to Caro: Love your blowdryer tip!)

Here are a few snippets from the class: 

Valerie Chua class, watercolor painting, Manila

Valerie Chua class, watercolor painting, Manila

Valerie Chua class, watercolor painting, Manila Valerie Chua class, watercolor painting, Manila

Valerie Chua class, watercolor painting, Manila

Valerie Chua class, watercolor painting, Manila
My best attempt in painting the apples. 🙂