teapot no. 15

Here's teapot no. 15. It's actually a white teapot, but i chose to paint it pink. I don't know yet how to get white things to look white on white paper with watercolor. I'll just have to experiment. I read once that an ancient Chinese Zen monk-painter-poet was asked how one learns to paint bamboo. His answer was to look at bamboo for ten years. I've kept that saying inside of me as I walk around and look closely at things. Sometimes I have looked at a particular shadow on tree bark, at the colors of the southwestern sunset, or light on the mountains, and wondered how I could paint these things. The "answer" is to just look and wonder. Then, pick up the brush and paint the wonder that seeps in. It takes time and lots of walking and looking. There's no technique, really. It's all about seeing and becoming the thing that you are painting.

I'm a little teapot short and stout
Here is my handle, here is my spout..."