Watercolor and Stoicism

Philosophy
Written By Sarah Florer

Update: A longer version of this post, with more focus on Stoicism, has been posted on Stoicism Today. You can read it here.

Blue watercolor with blooms

I’m a fan of both Stoic philosophy and (obviously) watercolor painting. These two interests may not seem related, but I’ve found that both have a lot to teach me about accepting what’s not in my control. In this post, I’ll talk about the similarities between watercolor and how watercolor helps me practice Stoicism. I’ll start with a quick background on Stoicism for those who aren’t familiar.

What is Stoicism?

Purple wet on wet watercolor

Stoic philosophy is an ancient Greek philosophy that focuses on finding happiness through living a virtuous life and learning to accept the many things in life that are outside of our control. Some people think it’s about suppressing your emotions, but it’s not (that’s stoic with a lower case s)It’s not about getting rid of emotions but about accepting and tempering our emotions so that we control them rather than our emotions controlling us.

I became interested in Stoicism after doing mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety. There are a lot of similarities between CBT and Stoicism.

I won’t go too deeply into the details of Stoicism (but will include some suggested reading materials at the end if you are interesting in learning more). I will focus on one part of Stoic philosophy which most relates to watercolor: the dichotomy of control.

What is the dichotomy of control ?

Moonglow watercolor

The dichotomy of control is the understanding of what is in our control and what is not. The things that are in our control are small. We can control our thoughts and actions, but little else. Everything else is out of our control. We can possibly influence the things that are out of our control by our actions, but we have no guarantee of controlling them.

Once we accept that we don’t control the things that are out of our control, we can learn to stop worrying about these things and instead focus on using what is in our control (our thoughts and actions) .

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ”
— Epictetus

How does this relate to watercolor?

Salt on watercolor

Watercolor is a medium that is hard to control. Watercolor is known for having a mind of its own. It does what is wants.

When I paint with watercolor, I find it’s a good reminder of the dichotomy of control and accepting what is not in my control.

What don’t I control with watercolor?

  • Blooms - Depending on the humidity, how much water I use, how fast I work, and other factors, I may end up with blooms on my painting due to uneven drying times.

  • Wet on wet - Whenever I use a wet on wet technique, I can use my skill and experience to guide the color, but it does what it does. It never turns out the same way twice.

  • Accidental bleeds - If I’m not careful enough, I may touch color to an area that’s still wet and color will quickly go where I did not intend for it to go.

  • Mistakes - Everybody makes mistakes. With the transparency of watercolor, it’s not easy to cover up a mistake in the painting.

  • Going to dark - Like with mistakes, when you go too dark in watercolor you can’t easily go lighter. As Stoicism teaches us, you can’t control what’s in the past. In watercolor, once it’s on the paper you’re kind of stuck with it.

What do I control with watercolor?

  • The tools I use - Different brushes, paints, and paper behave differently. I can choose tools and materials to help increase or decrease certain behaviors of watercolor. This isn’t a guarantee of an outcome, which I don’t control, but it does influence the outcome and I do have control over my choice of tools and materials.

  • How I paint - While I can’t always control exactly what the watercolor does, I can practice and learn techniques that help me encourage the watercolor to do more of what I want it to do.

  • How I address mistakes - While I can’t turn back time and undo a mistake, I can get creative and figure ways around something unexpected.

  • My attitude - I can control my attitude while I paint and how I act when things aren’t turning out how I was expecting.

You don’t control watercolor.

This can be difficult for artists who are more familiar with other mediums, like acrylic or colored pencil, where you can exert more control. If you want precision and want things to turn out exactly as you command them, then you are going to be very frustrated the first time watercolor decides to do its own thing. For this reason, watercolor isn’t for everybody.

Watercolor is not a good medium for someone who needs control. To succeed in watercolor, you must work with the watercolor rather than against it. It is futile to try to make watercolor do what you want.

The obstacle is the way

Two watercolor circles bleeding together
“What stands in the way becomes the way.”
— Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius teaches us that we are successful when we work with the obstacles we face, rather than again them.

We don’t control the obstacles that are in our way, but we can control what we think and do about it.

The obstacles of watercolor are the way of watercolor. Fighting against watercolor is a lost battle. Instead, success in watercolor painting comes from going with the flow. You have to accept watercolor for what it is, and work with it.

This may sound unpleasant and you may wonder why anyone would want to paint in a medium like this.

I love watercolor because by letting go of control and letting watercolor do its thing, I end up with something more than I could do on my own with 100% control. These uncontrollable elements of blooms, bleeds, textures, and water adds a level of richness and uniqueness to my paintings that I wouldn’t accomplish by myself.

When I accept watercolor for what it is, it does great things for me. One of the great secrets of watercolor is that when you let it do its thing, it often does a lot of the work for you. Watercolor painting is still a lot of hard work and requires a lot of practice and skill, but sometimes the watercolor does so much of the work for you that it almost feels like cheating.

Watercolor is a good reminder for me that I don’t have to be in control of everything and that life will turn out much happier for me when I accept what I don’t control and focus my energy on what I can control.

You control your thoughts

Green wet on wet watercolor

With watercolor, like with life, things don’t always go well. Even when I have a clear vision for a painting and I have the skill needed, sometimes it just turns out wrong.

But that’s ok.

While I can’t always control how a painting will turn out, I can control how I think about it and what I do about it. I can decide to not get upset about it and to try again.

As Sarah Cray of Let’s Make Art says, it’s just a piece of paper. The worst that is going to happen when my painting doesn’t turn out how I wanted is that I’ll throw it away. That’s not so bad. I can try again.

Stoicism reading suggestions

Granulated watercolor

If you’d like to learn more about Stoicism, here are some recommendations:

Sarah Florer
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